In a major revelation, a fruit seller named Muhammed Sadik, a native of Mannezhathuthara, who was arrested in Kerala for allegedly working for the Popular Front of India (PFI) on January 17, 2023, has revealed that the banned outfit had asked him to collect information on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) events in the Kollam District, including details of guests who were invited to these events for possible targeting by hit squads on January 27, 2013.
Muhammed Sadik is currently in legal custody of the NIA. And, he is being questioned for further details about other informers. During the investigation, NIA found that the PFI had radicalised locals, and used to call them their reporters.
According to NIA, “The case is related to activities of the PFI, its office-bearers, members and affiliates in Kerala for conspiring to indulge in unlawful activities by creating enmity between members of different religions and groups… and encouraging vulnerable youth to join terrorist organisations, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/Daesh and al-Qaida… conspiracy to establish Islamic rule in India by committing terrorist acts as a part of violent jihad,” reported Indian express quoting an NIA spokesperson as saying.
Notably, there has been a spate of killings in Kerala of RSS and BJP workers, like, S Sanjith, SK Srinivasan, Renjith Sreenivas, and others, in which the name of PFI and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) members had cropped up, leading to even the Kerala High Court observed in May 2022 that without any doubt, PFI and SDPI were extremist organisations and indulged in brutal acts of violence.
Also, PFI members were associated with international terrorist organisations like Islamic State. According to the Kerala Police, at least 6 PFI members from the Kannur district- Abdul, Ghayoom, Shameer, Abdul Manaf, Safwan, Suhail and his wife Rizwana – joined the Islamic State in 2017. PFI Kannur district president VK Noufal had confessed that Manaf Shameer was a PFI activist, reported TOI. It is important to mention that in July 2022, the NIA court in Kochi sentenced U K Hamsa, Midhilaj, and Abdul Razak in the 2017 Valapattanam IS recruitment case.
According to the police, the convicted persons were part of the Kannur module of the Islamic State (IS). Importantly, intelligence agencies estimated that about 50 individuals from the Kannur district had joined the IS in Syria, most of whom were PFI members. Also, one of the suspected terrorists, Shajahan Valluva Kandy of this Kannur module of the Islamic State, had confessed before the NIA that he joined ISIS to establish Islamic Shariah law in the subcontinent. Surprisingly, he has been associated with the PFI since 2006, when the terror organisation was known as the National Development Front.
