Nizamabad PFI Case: NIA Nabs Absconding Accused Carrying Rs 2 Lakh Bounty

New Delhi [India]: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has apprehended an absconding chargesheeted accused carrying a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh for his arrest in the Nizamabad Popular Front of India (PFI) case involving an anti-India conspiracy by the banned outfit to carry out acts of terror and violence.

Abdul Saleem, the State Secretary for the PFI Telangana North, is the 15th accused to be arrested in the case, originally registered by the State Police at Nizamabad Police Station in July 2022 and taken over by the NIA in August the same year.

Saleem has been on the run since the case came to light and NIA had subsequently declared the reward for his arrest. He was nabbed from Mydukur in Kadappa district of Andhra Pradesh based in an intelligence-led operation.

NIA investigations in the case have revealed that Saleem was involved in radicalisation and recruitment of impressionable Muslim youth into the PFI. He was also sending them to terror training camps for weapons training to equip them to further the organisation's nefarious anti-India agenda.

The NIA had earlier chargesheeted 11 accused, including Abdul Saleem, in December 2022, followed by supplementary chargesheets against five in March and one in December last year.

"An integral part of the conspiracy of the PFI and its cadres was to make India into an Islamic nation by 2047," said the NIA.