On Saturday, 27th August 2022, the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the Popular Front of India’s training module exposed in Nizamabad of Telangana where Muslim youths were being brainwashed and trained to use arms under the guise of karate classes.
It is alleged that 25 people associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI), including karate instructor Abdul Qader, were involved in the conspiracy to give terror training to the youth. Nizamabad police had arrested five persons, including the karate instructor, in connection with the case. Over 200 youths received training in these classes.
According to a report by Jagran, a senior NIA official said, “Soon, an FIR will be registered under anti-terrorism sections in this case. The karate instructor was appointed by luring him with Rs 6 lakh. In Nizamabad, PFI people have trained 200 youths and were planning to open karate training centers in nearby districts under the same model.” It is also suspected that PFI received foreign funding in this case.
A senior NIA official, who is probing several cases registered against PFI in different parts of the country, said that the case of terrorist training under the guise of karate training has come to light for the first time. Under this, the youths who came to take karate training were given to read radical religious literature, so that hatred could be created in their minds against people of other religions. After that, they are trained in weapons in various ways instead of karate so that they can attack and kill people of other religions. The PFI wanted to use these youths to incite riots and attack people of other religions during that time.
On Wednesday, July 6, The Nizamabad police in Telangana apprehended three Popular Front of India (PFI) members involved in training the 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 laborers 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.
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.
