Most-wanted criminal Sheikh Iliyas Ahmed, accused in the banned terrorist organization Popular Front of India (PFI) case, surrendered before the Nampally court on Tuesday. The court remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days, following which he was transferred to Chanchalguda Jail. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had named him as the third accused in the Nizamabad PFI conspiracy case. He had been absconding since 2022 and carried a reward of ₹2 lakh on his head. Sheikh Iliyas Ahmed hails from Buchireddypalem in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh.
According to the NIA, Sheikh Iliyas Ahmed, along with other accused, played a key role in inciting youth, recruiting them into PFI, providing them with armed training, and orchestrating attacks on other groups to create large-scale violence in the country. The agency revealed that he was involved in training youths on how to attack and kill by targeting vital body parts such as the head, stomach, and throat.
The case was initially registered by the Nizamabad Fourth Town Police in June 2022. Around the same time, the NIA gathered crucial intelligence on PFI’s activities across the country and simultaneously conducted raids at nearly 100 locations in multiple states.
Ahmed’s surrender is seen as a major breakthrough in the case, with security agencies expected to intensify their probe into PFI’s sleeper cells and networks.
In December 2022, NIA had filed its first Chargesheet against 11 accused in the case after taking over the investigations of the case in August 2022 from Telengana Police. In March 2023, NIA filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the same case.
Investigations revealed that the accused persons were radicalizing 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. Once recruited into the PFI, the Muslim youth were sent to Training Camps organized by the PFI under the cover and guise of Yoga Classes and Physical Education (PE) Beginners Course (BC), where they were trained in the use of everyday 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.
PFI and its many affiliates were declared as an ‘unlawful association’ by the MHA in September 2022 after its involvement in violent activities came to light during investigations carried out by various State police units and national agencies.
