Anti-Terror Agency NIA Files Chargesheet Against 11 Members Of Banned Group PFI

The National Investigation Agency has filed a charge sheet against 11 people accused of being involved in organising terror training camps and recruitment of youngsters for the banned Popular Front of India in Telangana, an official said on Friday.

The charge sheet against the accused -- 10 belonging to Telangana and one to Andhra Pradesh -- was filed before the NIA Special Court in Hyderabad on Thursday, a spokesperson of the federal agency said.

The case was initially registered on July 4 at the VI-Town police station in Telangana's Nizamabad district and was later re-registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on August 26.

"Investigations have revealed that the accused persons were radicalising gullible Muslim youth and recruiting them into the PFI through speeches filled with hatred and venom against the government of India as well as other organisations and individuals," the spokesperson said.

"Once recruited into the PFI (Popular Front of India), Muslim youths were sent to training camps organised by the PFI under the cover and guise of yoga classes and physical education...," the NIA official said.

In the "beginners course, they were trained in the use of every day articles (knife, sickle and iron rods) to kill a person by attacking vulnerable body parts such as throat, stomach and head, and for commission of terror acts", the spokesperson said.

The official said Abdul Khader, Abdul Ahad, Abdul Saleem, Shaik Shadullah, Feroz Khan, Mohammad Osman, Syed Yahiya Sameer, Shaik Imran alias "Imran Qureshi", Mohd Abdul Mubeen and Mohammad Irfan of Telangana, and Shaik Iliyas Ahmed of Andhra Pradesh were charge-sheeted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.