PFI imparts weapons training in specifically organized camps: says NIA’s 2nd chargesheet in Nizamabad case

New Delhi [India], March 17 (ANI): Popular Front of India (PFI) cadres were found involved in provoking and radicalizing impressionable Muslim youth, recruiting them in the banned outfit and imparting them weapons training in its specifically organized training camps, says the National Investigation Agency’s fresh charge-sheet in the Nizamabad case.

The agency filed the supplementary charge sheet in a special NIA Court in Hyderabad naming five accused Shaik Raheem alias Abdul Raheem, Shaik Vahaid Ali alias Abdul Wahed Ali, Jafrulla Khan Pathan, Shaik Riyaz Ahmed and Abdul Waris. They have been charge-sheeted under sections 120B, 153A of IPC and Sections 13(1)(b), 18, 18 A and 18 B of the UA (P) Act, 1967.

Earlier in December 2022, the NIA had filed its first charge-sheet against 11 accused in the case after taking over the investigations from Telangana Police in August 2022. The case had initially been registered on July 4 last year by Telangana Police.
The agency said it filed the charge sheet on completion of further investigations into the case pertaining to the criminal conspiracy hatched by the PFI leaders and cadres to recruit and radicalise youth and organise training camps to put them through arms training for carrying acts of terror and violence.

The NIA said the accused persons chargesheeted are “trained PFI cadres who were found involved in provoking and radicalizing impressionable Muslim youth, recruiting them into the PFI and imparting weapons training in specifically organized PFI training camps”.

“The aim was to carry out violent terrorist activities, in furtherance of the conspiracy to establish Islamic rule in the country by 2047,” said the anti-terror agency.

“These PFI cadres misinterpreted religious texts and proclaimed that a violent form of Jihad was necessary to alleviate the sufferings of Muslims in India. Once recruited into the PFI, the Muslim youth were sent to the training camps organized by the accused PFI cadres where they were trained in the use of lethal weapons to kill their ‘targets’ by attacking their vital body parts such as throat, stomach and head.”

The PFI and its many affiliates were declared an ‘unlawful association’ by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in September last year after its involvement in violent activities came to light during investigations carried out by various state police units and national agencies.