Popular Front of India ran a secret wing that made hit list of people: NIA

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on December 20 informed the court that the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) had constituted a secret wing in order to prepare a hit list of leaders of a particular community.

The investigation agency further informed the court that the secret wing had a state-wide network through which data was collected and preparation of the list of targets was done.

The NIA revealed this in a report filed before the NIA Special Court, Kochi while seeking an extension of the remand period of 14 PFI activists arrested under the Unlawful Activities Act (UAPA) in September.

Eventually, the court accepted the request of NIA and extended the judicial custody of the accused up to 180 days.

The NIA, in its report to the court also stated that some victims of the murder carried out by the PFI had no association or any previous engagement with the organization.

''They were randomly selected by the PFI in order to send a message of terror to society,'' the NIA claimed in its report.

The NIA further said to the court that the investigation further revealed that some of the PFI leaders or cadres propagated the ideology of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and had joined such organizations.

''The links between the PFI leaders and ISIS were revealed in the digitized documents seized in the nationwide raid,'' the report further said.

The NIA's report further alleged that the PFI was engaged in suspicious fund transactions, which had been used for anti-national activities.

Earlier in September, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had banned the Islamic outfit following multiple raids across the country and arrests by the Central agencies for its alleged links to terror funding.

On September 22 and 27, the NIA and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on the PFI offices and residents of its leaders across the country.

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