NIA files chargesheet against 19 PFI leaders

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed a chargesheet against 19 more leaders of the banned organization Popular Front of India (PFI) in a case related to a criminal conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the country, an official said.

This is the fifth chargesheet filed by the NIA in connection with the matter this month.

"The investigation has exposed a trail of funding by the PFI to its terror operatives and weapons trainers across the country, both in cash and through regular bank transfers, in the guise of payment of salaries. All these PFI trainers have been arrested in cases registered either by the NIA or by different state police forces," the NIA has alleged in the chargesheet.

An official said the NIA also froze 37 bank accounts of the PFI as well as 40 other bank accounts belonging to its 19 leaders.

The official said that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by PFI to divide the country into communal lines.

The NIA also learned that "the ultimate objective of the conspiracy was to overthrow the existing system of secular and democratic governance in India and replace it with an Islamic Caliphate, along with Shariah/Islamic Law".

The NIA said that PFI had devised a well-planned strategy to wage "an armed struggle against the Government of India by radicalizing and recruiting Muslim youth who had already pledged their allegiance to the PFI and its ideology and tactics through administration of the oath of secrecy and loyalty (bayath)".

According to the NIA, "these highly radicalized men were being trained in the use of arms and weapons in various 'Arms Training Camps' being conducted by PFI across the country to raise a well-trained 'PFI Army'. PFI had hatched plans for its Army to wage a war to disintegrate and dismember the Indian Republic".

Officials said the PFI's activities included the empowerment of Muslims and marginalized sections of society through campaigns and so-called social welfare schemes, in the guise of which the organization was promoting its anti-India and violent agenda. (KB/IANS)