In an ongoing criminal investigation against Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders and cadres, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has attached its offices in Kota and Jaipur as ‘proceeds of terrorism’ under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The properties attached by NIA today include the PFI office located at House No. 256, near the Punjab National Bank, Moti Dungari Road, District- Jaipur, Rajasthan and the PFI office, near the Arakeen Badi Masjid, Madrasa Furkania, Lalji Ghati Ladpura Kota, Rajasthan.
Earlier, on March 13, the NIA had charge sheeted Mohammad Ashif, alias Asif, of Kota and Sadiq Sarraf, of Baran, in this case. During investigations, ten bank accounts belonging to PFI and its members were also frozen by the NIA.
The NIA has claimed that during investigations of the case, registered in September 2022, it was learned that the PFI offices situated at Jaipur and Kota were being used by the accused persons and other PFI cadres for organizing terror training camps.
These trainees, mostly young Muslim boys, were being radicalised and were further trained in the use of dangerous weapons, such as knives and swords, to carry out assaults and attacks with the intent to murder by targeting vulnerable parts of the body, including the head, neck and chest.
The investigations also revealed that PFI leaders and its cadres in Rajasthan aimed to drive a wedge between different communities in India through religious radicalization.
In this regard, the PFI leaders and cadre had been training gullible youth in the use of weapons. They were also raising funds to carry out terrorist and violent acts with the ultimate goal of establishing Islamic rule in India by 2047.
PFI and its associated groups were banned by the Government of India in September last year for a period of five years for their alleged links with proscribed Islamist terror organisations like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), among others.