The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has attached what it termed as one of the “largest arms and martial training” facilities allegedly owned by the proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) in Kerala.
It said on Monday that the training centre was spread over 10 hectares of land at Manjeri in Malappuram and operated under the cover of Green Valley Academy.
“The PFI had been using the property for imparting arms training, physical training, and training on use and testing of explosives to its cadres, identified as part of their ‘Service Wing’. The facility was also used to harbour several PFI Service Wing members after they committed crimes, including murders,” the NIA said in a press release.
It said the PFI used the centre to impart “radical and rabid ideological training in PFI’s divisive and communal agenda and policies to its trained operatives, cadres and members. Offices of the PFI and its frontal organisations were functioning from these premises under the guise of imparting education and personality development skills.”
The NIA stated that the penal action was part of its continuing crackdown on the “terror activities” of the PFI.
So far, the NIA has attached 18 properties owned by the PFI in Kerala under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) provisions.
The five other PFI training centres attached previously by the NIA in Kerala were Malabar House, Periyar Valley, Valluvanad House, Karunya Charitable Trust and Trivandrum Education and Service Trust (TEST).
Another 12 PFI offices, used “intermittently by the outfit’s leadership to organise training in arms and physical activity, ideological propagation, and exercise for committing various crimes, including murders and terrorist acts,” have also been attached.
NIA investigations have “revealed that the PFI has been running many such training centres in the guise of charitable and educational trusts formed by the organisation’s members or leaders. Investigations have also revealed that the PFI had hired several buildings for running their training camps and activities relating to terror and violence,” the agency stated.
