The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested a 33-year-old alleged Popular Front of India (PFI) worker dubbed as the “master weapons trainer”, living under a fake identity in Ballari in Karnataka. The accused was involved in the Nizamabad terror conspiracy case and was on the run since September last year.
According to an NIA’s official release, the case pertains to a criminal conspiracy hatched by the leaders and cadres of the now-banned outfit PFI to recruit and radicalize youth and provide them with arms training to promote and carry out terrorist activities with the ultimate objective of establishing Islamic rule in India.
The 33-year-old accused, Nossam Mohamed Yunus alias Yunus of Nandyal, was working in the inverter business of his elder brother. When NIA officials searched his house in September 2022, he managed to escape along with his wife, and two minor sons.
NIA investigations have revealed that he had shifted his entire family from Andhra Pradesh, and was hiding in the Cowl Bazar area of Ballari city, where he had assumed a new identity as Basheer, with a new profession as a plumber.
“Yunus was a master weapons trainer and was providing weapons training to the youth recruited by PFI in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region. He was also the training state coordinator for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and an accused in the Nizamabad PFI case,” the NIA release, said. Yunus has reportedly named one Shaikh Ilyas Ahmed as also being involved in the PFI weapons training programme. Ilyas is also currently absconding.
“With his arrest, NIA has once again exposed PFI’s radical nefarious plans to drive a communal wedge among the communities and to use innocent Muslim youth to disturb and disrupt peace and communal harmony in the country,” NIA has claimed. .
The Telangana Police had initially registered an FIR in the case on July 4, 2022, which was taken over by NIA and re-registered the case in Hyderabad. NIA has so far filed two chargesheets against 16 accused persons in this case.
