Kochi: In a sustained move against terror outfits, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) attached an Arms and Physical training Centre of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), media reports said.
The action was taken under the provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. With this, the NIA has so far attached six
Arms Training centres and 18 properties associated with the banned outfit in Kerala, the reports said.
Spread over 10 hectares of land in Manjeri, the centre is otherwise known as the Green Valley Academy managed by the ‘Green Valley Foundation’ (GVF). Once used by the banned National Development Front, it was being used by the PFI for imparting training in arms, testing of explosives among others.
Also used as a hideout, the centre had some of its sister organisations functioning under the guise of educational institutions, the reports said.
Malabar House, Periyar Valley, Valluvanad House, Karunya Charitable Trust, and Trivandrum Education and Service Trust (TEST) were other PFI training centres attached by NIA earlier. The agency had in March filed a chargesheet against 59 individuals associated with the PFI in connection with various charges including terror activities.
The NIA had detained at least 100 PFI leaders and activists on September 22, 2022 in connection with charges of terror-funding and money laundering leading to PFI calling strikes in Kerala and Tamil Nadu that led to violence causing damages of Rs 5 crore worth properties.
Hundreds were arrested and their properties attached to recover the damages. On 27 September 2022, 247 activists were arrested. The PFI was declared a banned outfit for five years by the centre on 28 September 2022.
The government said that the outfit was “prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the country” and citied PFIs alleged connection with terror organisations like Students Islamic Movement of India, Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The centre had also banned eight similar organisations Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organization, National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.
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