NIA Attaches 2 Floors Of Building In Pune Used By PFI As Training Centre
Pune/ New Delhi, 17th April 2023: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday attached two floors of a building in Kondhwa, Pune, Maharashtra, where the Popular Front of India (PFI) had been organising camps to radicalise and indoctrinate Muslim youth and further train them for carrying out targeted killings and attacks against leaders and organisations of a particular community.
The 4th and 5th floors of the building were used by PFI to plan and prepare for carrying out terrorist activities with the aim of endangering the unity, integrity and security of India. PFI was recruiting innocent Muslim youth into the outfit at these premises, and also providing them with armed and unarmed training to eliminate/attack those opposed to the establishment of Islamic Rule in the country by 2047.
The two floors have been attached by NIA as ‘proceeds of terrorism’ under the provisions of UA (P) Act, 1967 in a case registered by the agency on 13th April 2022 as FIR No. RC-14/2022/NIA/DLI. NIA had filed a Charge-sheet on 18th March 2023, before the NIA Special Court, Delhi, against 20 accused, including the PFI, as an organisation.
NIA had conducted a search of the two floors of the school premises on September 22 last year. The agency had 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 cadres. 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 of committing terrorist activities.
The newly recruited PFI cadres were trained in the use of dangerous weapons, like knife, sickle etc., for attacking and murdering prominent leaders opposed to the outfit’s ideology of establishing an Islamic Rule in India.
NIA investigations had earlier revealed that the accused persons were part of the criminal conspiracy to establish Caliphate and Islamic Rule in India by waging war against the country and toppling the democratically elected government. They were all identified as senior PFI cadres/NEC Members/ Accountant(s)/Authorised signatories of PFI’s bank accounts.
Further investigations are under progress to unearth the roles of other accused persons/suspects in the case.
NIA has been investigating the activities of the PFI, which was declared as an ‘unlawful association’ in September 2022.
According to the school management, the Blue Bells School has no relation with PFI whatsoever. The KZ Knowledge Centre, where the school is located, is owned by Aqilahmed Siddiqui and the school operates from rented premises within the building. The building has four storeys and a terrace, with an Urdu School on the ground and first floors, and Blue Bells School on the second and third floors. The school has permission from the Mantralaya for all its departments.
The NIA has sealed the fourth and fifth floors of the building which were rented to PFI.
Reshma Shaikh, the Principal of Blue Bells School, shared the journey of running the self-aided school with her husband. Established in 2019, the school operates under the Seva Foundation trust and is currently rented from the KZ Knowledge Centre. Fasal-e-Karim, her husband, serves as the Chief Trustee of the foundation. The school caters to 380 students, from nursery to Class X, most of whom come from lower middle-class families, with many being the children of labourers. It is the only English medium institution that these families can afford. The school had its first batch of 13 students appearing for the Board exams this year, she informed.
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