NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which had initiated a massive, multi-state crackdown on radical Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in September 2022, has over the course of this week filed four chargesheets against PFI, naming the organisation and its 75 leaders and cadres across Rajasthan, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, in an alleged conspiracy to spread religious extremism with the aim of establishing Islamic rule in India by 2047.
The accused — two in Jaipur, five in Hyderabad, 58 in Ernakulam and 10 in Chennai — have been charged with being part of a conspiracy hatched by PFI, now banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, to drive a communal wedge by radicalising impressionable Muslim youth and providing them weapons training to carry out targeted killings. The PFI’s plan, said NIA, was to wage an armed struggle against the Government of India with the ultimate objective of dismembering the country and establishing Islamic rule by the 100th year of India’s Independence. The PFI cadres, as per the chargesheet, misinterpreted religious texts to hard-sell jihad to Indian Muslims as a means to “alleviate their suffering”.
All the four chargesheets have charged the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Arms Act.
A reading of the various chargesheets shows that PFI had, to realise its objective to establish Islamic Rule in India by 2047, established specialised units like the ‘reporters wing’, ‘physical and arms training wing’ and ‘service teams’. The ‘service teams’ comprised highly radicalised cadres assigned to eliminate “targets” — mostly right-wing activists — by attacking vital body parts like throat, stomach and head. These service teams, as per NIA, were executing orders of parallel PFI-backed courts called ‘Dar-ul-Qaza’.
NIA investigations found that PFI was using various campuses, facilities and infrastructure to impart arms training to cadres in the guise of physical education or yoga training. PFI cadres, NIA said, would conduct reccee and attack adversaries based on the instructions of PFI office bearers and leaders.
The chargesheet filed on Friday in Kerala PFI case registered in September 2022, includes the connected case of brutal killing of Palakkad resident Sreenivasan by armed PFI cadres last year. Some of the accused in the Kerala PFI conspiracy case were found to be involved in Sreenivasan’s killing.
The chargesheet filed in NIA court, Ernakulam names the outfit’s Kerala general secretary Yahiya Koya Thangal, Ernakulam zonal commander Shihas MH and state general secretary of PFI’s political arm SDPI P K Usman. The Tamil Nadu chargesheet names the state vice-president of PFI Khalid Mohammed among the 10 accused.