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NIA attaches Pune school’s 2 floors used by PFI for camps
The NIA has attached two floors of a school building in Pune, alleging that they were used by the banned PFI to radicalize Muslim youth and plan terrorist activities. The school principal denied any connection to the seized floors. The NIA had previously searched the two floors and seized incriminating documents. The PFI was declared an unlawful association in September 2022. Maharashtra ATS had arrested five office-bearers of the banned organization in a separate action, claiming that the organization had plans to convert India into an Islamic state by 2047.
MUMBAI/PUNE: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday attached two floors of a school building in Pune, where the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) had allegedly organised camps “to radicalise and indoctrinate Muslim youth and train them for carrying out targeted killings and attacks against leaders and organisations of a particular community”.
However, the school principal claimed that the floors seized by the agency were not part of the school building, and the media was fed with wrong information.
The NIA alleged that the 4th and 5th floors of the Blue Bell School building were used by the PFI to plan terrorist activities with the aim to endanger the unity, integrity and security of India.
“The PFI recruited innocent Muslim youth and provided them with armed and unarmed training to eliminate those opposed to the establishment of Islamic rule in the country by 2047,” it said in a release on Monday.
The two floors have been attached as ‘proceeds of terrorism’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, in a case the NIA had registered in Delhi on April 13, 2022. The agency on March 18 filed a chargesheet before the special NIA court in Delhi, naming 20 accused, including the PFI.
Blue Bells High School and Junior College is located in the K Z Knowledge Center building at Kondhwa Budruk. The school was started in 2009 by late Shaukat Ali Shaikh.
School principal Reshma Fazalekarim Shaikh said, “There is no connection between our school, which runs from the 2nd and 3rd floor, and the action taken by the NIA. So, our school building has not been seized. The entire building (K Z Knowledge Center) is rented out and the floors attached by the agency were with a trust which I don’t know about.”
The NIA had on September 22 last year searched houses and offices of top PFI leaders and members at 93 locations in 15 states, including Maharashtra, “following continued inputs and evidence that the PFI was involved in funding terrorist activities, organising training camps for providing armed training, and radicalising people to join banned organisations”, the release said, adding, 45 people had been arrested.
At the time, the agency had also searched the two floors of the school and seized incriminating documents, “which revealed that the said property was used by the accused, found to be associated with the PFI, for organising arms training for its cadre”, the NIA statement said.
“The training camps served as platforms to incite innocent Muslim youth against the government, as well as leaders and organisations of a particular community. The camps were also used to inflame their passions and provoke them into embracing violent jihad, with the aim to commit terrorist activities.”
The release further said that “the newly recruited PFI cadre were trained in the use of dangerous weapons for attacking and murdering prominent leaders opposed to the outfit’s ideology of establishing an Islamic rule in India”.
The investigation had revealed that the accused - all senior PFI cadre/national executive committee members - were part of a criminal conspiracy “to establish Caliphate and Islamic rule in India by waging a war against the country and toppling the democratically elected government”, the release added.
The PFI was declared an ‘unlawful association’ in September 2022, under the UAPA.
In a separate action, the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad had on September 22 last year arrested five office-bearers of the banned organisation. They were identified as Mazhar Mansoor Khan, 54, Shaikh Sadiq Isaq Qureshi, 42, Mohammad Iqbal Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, 38, Moinuddin Gulam Hussain aka Momin Mistry, 38, and Mohammed Aasif Aminul Hussain Khan Adhikari, 46.
On February 2, the ATS filed a chargesheet against the five, claiming that the organisation had plans “to convert India into an Islamic state by 2047 when the country is to celebrate 100 years of independence”.
The ATS claimed that the conspiracy was outlined in a document titled “India 2047: Towards Rules of Islam in India” allegedly found in the electronic device of one of the accused, Mazhar Khan.
