PFI members used social media accounts to spread communal hatred, target govt. and higher judiciary: NIA
The Hindu
A hit squad had been set up to eliminate the targets identified by the organisation.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has analysed more than 60 Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts linked to the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI), through which its functionaries and members were allegedly spreading communal hatred and targeting the Indian government and higher judiciary.
The data related to these social media accounts was downloaded or extracted in the presence of independent witnesses. “A thorough analysis of the downloaded data revealed several inflammatory and communal speeches made by the accused persons/PFI cadre on their social media handles. Similarly, multiple posts/videos were found opprobrious of the higher judiciary and the Government of India,” alleges the agency.
In the YouTube videos downloaded from the PFI’s official accounts, the accused persons, who were its national executive council (NEC) members, were seen “addressing large gatherings of people and provoking them against the Indian government by wrongful interpretations of government policies to create hatred against the entire State machinery, High Courts and the Supreme Court... and instigating the crowd towards violence against the persons belonging to a particular religious or political group”.
Before being banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on September 27, 2022, the PFI had its footprint in more than 20 States. On March 21, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal upheld the ban on PFI and its affiliates. The NIA has alleged that the outfit was developing a mass organisation on the pretext of a socio-political movement and intended to float a militia and generate resources for waging war against the Indian government to establish an “Islamic caliphate” in its place.
The agency found that the cadre-based outfit had units at the ground level and supervisory wings at the district, State and the national level. The PFI’s NEC was the supreme decision-making body for which selections were made by its national general assembly having representatives from each State in the proportion of one representative per 300 members.
“The ultimate and highly secretive objectives of the PFI and the means to achieve the same are enshrined in the document titled ‘India 2047: Towards Rule of Islam in India’, which was seized during the investigation in a case,” said a senior agency official.
As alleged by the NIA, the proposed stages to achieve the objective involved weapons training to the PFI cadre; selective use of violence to demonstrate strength and terrorise opponents; foment communal and social disharmony; and infiltrate the police, army and the judiciary. The strategy was to be executed by radicalising the youth, recruiting them and training those who “pledged their allegiance to the PFI by administration of oath of secrecy and loyalty” in the use of arms and weapons.