NIA Raids: On Sunday (August 13), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out raids and searches in five states as part of its investigation into the operations of the banned group Popular Front of India (PFI).
Up to 14 locations linked to the PFI in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Bihar were raided by the NIA, and damning digital devices and papers were seized.
The NIA’s goal was to “unearth the banned outfit’s conspiracy to disturb the peace and communal harmony of India”.
“The NIA has been working to unravel and thwart the attempts by PFI and its top leadership to create an armed cadre and raise a PFI Army for establishing an Islamic Caliphate in India by the year 2047 through acts of terror, violence and sabotage,” the NIA said in a statement.
“PFI has been conspiring to radicalise gullible youth and provide them weapons training in a bid to further its violent anti-India agenda by fighting against certain sections of the society,” the NIA statement added.
PFI running terrorist training camps
The investigation agency has reason to believe that some PFI operatives are working as master instructors, running weapons training camps in various states to instruct highly radicalised PFI cadres in the use of weapons like iron rods, swords, and knives.
Based on intelligence and investigative analysis, the NIA has been undertaking raids in a number of locations over the past few months to locate and capture these cadres and operatives.
In April 2022, the NIA filed a lawsuit against the PFI. In September of that year, the NIA conducted nationwide operations, gathered damaging information, and detained a number of prominent PFI figures, including more than a dozen members of the national executive committee.
“The NIA conducted intensive investigations against the accused and filed a chargesheet against 19 of them in March 2023. PFI as an organisation was also named in the chargesheet. Subsequently, in April 2023, a supplementary chargesheet was filed against the PFI National Coordinator of weapons training,” the NIA statement said.
