On Tuesday, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad revealed a dangerous plan of the now-banned Islamist terrorist organization named Popular Front of India (PFI). The officials said that the PFI jihadis had planned to blow up Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir and build Babri Masjid at the same location. They also had planned to make India an Islamic country by 2047, the year in which India would complete 100 years of its Independence.
According to the reports, the ATS recently arrested five PFI jihadis from Maharashtra’s Malegaon, Pune, and other regions who were produced in the Nashik Court on October 18. The PFI jihadis arrested included Malegaon district PFI president Maulana Saeed Ahmed Ansari, Pune vice president Abdul Qayyum Sheikhand and three from other parts of the state.
The officials said that the five were detained on the suspicion of conspiring to spread communal unrest and providing money to the terrorists. According to the police, the PFI had crafted a dangerous conspiracy while aiming to make India a Muslim nation by the year 2047. The PFI jihadis had set a target to blow up Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir and had planned to build Babri Masjid there instead.
The Police also said that the arrested PFI jihadis were part of a WhatsApp group that is administered from Pakistan. The group, consisting of around 175 members from India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Afghanistan, reportedly discussed conspiracy to carry out destructive activities in the country. They also had planned to execute severe riots and social unrest in the country.
The investigating officials examined computer, mobile, hard disk, and bank transactions belonging to the arrested PFI jihadis, produced in the Nashik Court on Tuesday. This is days after the state officials arrested around 35 PFI jihadis from across Maharashtra. The action came as part of the nationwide crackdown on PFI.
PFI banned on September 27
After two rounds of the massive crackdown, the Ministry of Home Affairs on September 27 issued a notification banning the Islamist organization named Popular Front of India and its affiliate organizations. The MHA stated that the organizations including All India Imams Council, Campus Front of India (CFI), Rehab India Foundation, National Conf of Human Rights Org, National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala-operated unlawfully and needed to be banned under UAPA.
The ban on the PFI came after two rounds of searches by the NIA in a multi-agency investigation against the organization for sponsoring terror operations in the nation. The initial series of raids occurred on September 22, with a follow-up on Tuesday, September 27 in multiple states, resulting in the arrest of at least 250 persons associated with PFI.
The NIA officials also recovered several incriminating materials from the PFI hubs located in around 17 states of the country. Prominent among them include a brochure and CD related to ‘Mission 2047’. As reported earlier, the document has been recovered from the possession of the vice president of PFI Maharashtra and PE training material from Irfan Milli’s house, the State President of PFI Maharashtra.
Further, a huge amount of undocumented cash was also recovered from the PFI leaders of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and also document in a ‘short course on how to make IEDs using easily available materials’. Meanwhile, pen drives containing videos related to ISIS, and Gajwa-e-Hind were found from the Uttar Pradesh PFI leadership and Marine radio sets from Tamil Nadu PFI leadership. Many such other materials including wireless communication devices have been taken into custody by the official.
