PFI Planned To Establish Caliphate In India by 2047, Kill Hindu Leaders: Delhi HC

The court in its detailed order has observed that PFI planned to kill Hindu leaders, attack security forces and establish Caliphate in India by 2047.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday while rejecting the bail plea of Popular Front of India (PFI) head E Abubacker said that the banned organisation wanted to challenge the unity and sovereignty of India. The court in its detailed order has observed that PFI planned to kill Hindu leaders, attack security forces and establish Caliphate in India by 2047.

"Such statements also go on to show that objective of such weapon-training was with the idea of overthrowing the democratically elected government to replace the Constitution of India with a Caliphate Shariya Law," the high court order read. 

A bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Manoj Jain while denying bail to Abubacker in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case said that PFI's intention was not just to overthrow the government but also to target India's unity and sovereignty.

"The planning of targeted killing of Hindu leaders and attacking the security forces and establishing Caliphate by 2047 would clearly indicate that the target was to challenge the, 'unity and sovereignty of India' and not merely to 'overthrow the government'. Thus, the objective and manner of achieving the same, both, seem culpable," the high court said.

'PFI Held Terror Camps, Recruiting And Radicalising Muslim Youths' 

The high court further noted that PFI had been had been organising terror camps, recruiting and radicalising Muslim youths and imparting weapon-training for the purposes of commission of terrorist acts across the country.

"We have already noted that the goal was to establish Caliphate by the year 2047 and at times, it takes years to achieve any such distant
objective. To say that there was no proximity between the alleged preparatory act and the ultimate objective, would not be, therefore, appropriate as such kind of activities are unrelenting, perpetual and unceasing. The organization had been holding terror camps, recruiting and radicalizing Muslim youths and imparting weapon-training for the purposes of commission of terrorist act across the country and, therefore, it cannot be said that there was no proximity between the two or that the weapon-training was merely an act of defence, particularly when the statements of witnesses, clearly, speak to the contrary and indict the appellant."

Abucbacker was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) during a massive crackdown on the PFI in 2022.

"The allegations and averments appearing in charge-sheet coupled with the statements made by the witnesses, including the protected witnesses, the tone and tenor of the speeches made by the appellant, the fact that appellant was earlier closely associated with SIMI and when it was banned, he switched to PFI; the manner in which he has been sanctioning amount from PFI bank account and the overall impact of the material so collected by the investigating agency; leave no element of uncertainty in our minds about the fact that the case of the prosecution, with respect to the commission of offences falling under Chapter-IV and Chapter-VI of UAPA, is prima facie true," the court order denying him bail read.

'PFI Targetted RSS, Provoked Muslim Youth For Ghazwa-e-Hind Against Govt' 

The court order cited statements of several protected witnesses which indicated PFI targetted RSS and provoked Muslim youth to pick up arms against it.

"Protected witness K also stated that during training, various leaders, including appellant herein, had shown them videos and pictures
about the good works done by Tanzim (PFI organization) about RSS office, activities of RSS members and various riot incidents which took place in India with the purpose to emphasize that Muslims were being targeted by RSS and such instructors would repeatedly tell the participants that the fight was against RSS which is the biggest enemy of Islam in the country and that NEC wanted to raise an army of loyal and physical trained cadres to make India an Islamic Nation and recreate Caliphate by the year 2047 through an “armed struggle” against the Government of India colloquially known as Ghazwa-e-Hind," the order noted.

As per NIA, the PFI and its members hatched a criminal conspiracy to raise funds for committing acts of terror across the country and were conducting training camps to indoctrinate and train their cadre for this purpose. They are also accused of insighting Muslim youths to join ISIS.

In September 2022, Centre banned PFI on accusations of connections with global terror groups such as ISIS.

Following this ban raids were conducted in Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Delhi and Rajasthan.

In 2022, the NIA arrested several alleged memebers of PFI from across several states during a crackdown preceding the nationwide ban by the Centre on it.