NIA conducts raids against PFI at 17 places across four states including Bihar

In a fresh crackdown against the cadres of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Today carried out searches at 17 locations of PFI in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Goa.

NIA conducted these raids at the premises and suspected locations of PFI sympathizers and cadres in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Goa based on inputs that several Over Ground Workers (OGW) of the outfit indulged in anti-national activities.

The places being searched include 12 in Bihar, two in Uttar Pradesh and one each in Punjab’s Ludhiana and Goa, sources told ANI. According to the sources, “Multiple NIA teams are engaged in raids in close coordination with state police forces.”

The NIA investigation has found that despite the ban imposed on the PFI, the leaders and cadres of the outfit continued to propagate the ideology of violent extremism and were also arranging arms and ammunition to commit crimes. The NIA has been investigating the activities of the PFI, which was declared as an ‘unlawful association’ in September 2022.

The NIA’s action came days after it attached two floors of a school building in Maharashtra’s Pune where the PFI had been organizing camps to radicalize and indoctrinate Muslim youth and further train them for carrying out targeted killings and attacks against leaders and organizations of particular community.

As per the NIA, the PFI was recruiting innocent Muslim youth into the outfit at these premises, and also providing them with armed and unarmed training to eliminate and attack those opposed to the establishment of Islamic Rule in the country by 2047.