The Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) has filed a chargesheet against five members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) alleging that the group was working towards a larger narrative of bringing Islamic rule to India by 2047.
The state ATS arrested the five PFI members - Mazhar Khan, Sadiq Shaikh, Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Momin Mistry and Aasif Hussain Khan - following raids by multiple agencies across various states in September last year.
In its 1,113-page chargesheet filed on February 2, the ATS has cited A seven-page booklet ‘India 2047, Towards Rule of Islam in India’, purportedly recovered from the Vikhroli residence of Mazhar Mansoor Khan, the main accused. The booklet allegedly aims to turn India into an "Islamic-rule".
The seized document, as per the ATS, provides a roadmap for members of the group (PFI) to "overturn the government".
"We dream 2047, where the political power has returned to the Muslim community from whom it was unjustly taken away by the British Raj. The roadmap towards this first starts with the socio-economic development of Muslim community for which a separate roadmap was already provided in the name of Empower India Foundation," the document said, as per the chargesheet.
“For this one needs to repeatedly remind the Muslim community of its grievances and establish grievances where there is none. All our frontal organisations including the party should be focused on expanding and recruiting new members," the document stated.
The chargesheet said the PFI wanted to create a split among several communities by projecting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as an organisation interested only in the welfare of upper-caste Hindus.
The accused had held several training courses in order to achieve their targets, the ATS said.
The chargesheet also claimed another document was found from the devices of the accused, Iqbal, which gave details of their plans for expansion in Maharashtra.
In the said document, the names of all the five accused were mentioned as members who were scheduled to take "final class", the chargesheet stated.
The organisation (PFI) had plans to obtain weapons and ammunition with the help of foreign countries or other organisations to achieve their targets, the ATS claimed.
The Centre in September 2022 banned the PFI and several of its associates for five years under a stringent anti-terror law, accusing them of having “links” with global terror groups like ISIS and trying to spread communal hatred in the country.
Before the ban, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), the Enforcement Directorate(ED) and various state police forces had carried out raids in a massive pan-India crackdown on the PFI and arrested several of its leaders and activists from various states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.
(with PTI inputs)
