On Tuesday, 14th June 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a master weapons trainer associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI) in Karnataka. This arrest is linked to the Nizamabad terror conspiracy case, which involves a criminal plot devised by PFI leaders and members to recruit and radicalize young Muslim individuals. The objective of this conspiracy was to provide arms training to these individuals, encouraging them to carry out terrorist activities and ultimately establish Islamic rule in India.
The arrested individual, identified as Nossam Mohamed Yunus from Nandyal, had been evading law enforcement since the NIA conducted a search at his residence in September 2022. Further investigations conducted by the NIA revealed that he had relocated his entire family from Andhra Pradesh and was residing in Karnataka under a false identity.
Yunus, a skilled weapons trainer, was actively involved in imparting weapons training to recruited individuals associated with the PFI in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regions. Additionally, he held the position of Physical Education Training State Coordinator for these two states in the Nizamabad PFI Case. With his arrest, NIA has once again exposed PFI’s radical plans to drive a communal wedge and use innocent Muslim youths to disturb and disrupt peace and communal harmony in the country.
Telangana Police had initially registered an FIR in the case in July 2022 before NIA took over the case and re-registered it as (RC-03/2022/NIA/HYD). NIA has already filed two chargesheets against 16 accused persons in this case. PFI and its many affiliates were declared an ‘unlawful association’ by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in September 2022 after its involvement in violent activities came to light during investigations carried out by various state police units and national agencies.
The Nizamabad terror conspiracy case
On Wednesday, July 6, 2022, the Nizamabad police in Telangana arrested three Popular Front of India (PFI) members involved in training Muslim youths in anti-national activities. the three PFI members were nabbed from the residence of one Shadullah in the Gundaram area in Nizamabad town. The trio was residing in Nizamabad while posing as small-time labourers like wielding mechanics, but their prime objective was to identify gullible Muslim youths, radicalize them with Sharia law, and then recruit them for anti-national activities, according to Nizamabad Commissioner of Police KR Nagaraju. These arrested accused were identified as Shaik Shadullah (40), Mohammad Imran (22) and Mohammad Abdul Mobin (27).
One of the accused admitted to the police during questioning that the PFI was seeking to indoctrinate the local Muslim youths with Sharia law and Islamic fundamentalism in order to recruit them into anti-national activities. He also admitted that the group had been conducting workshops to teach Muslims how to use deadly weapons and martial arts with the primary goal of recruiting them to wage jihad in the state.
The arrested also confessed that similar workshops regarding legal matters were being conducted along with physical training by PFI members in Nizamabad, Jagitial, Hyderabad, Nellore, Kurnool, and Kadapa.
