170 PFI activists arrested in pan-India crackdown

| | New Delhi
  • 0

170 PFI activists arrested in pan-India crackdown

Wednesday, 28 September 2022 | PNS | New Delhi

170 PFI activists arrested  in pan-India crackdown

Over 170 people allegedly linked to the radical Popular Front of India (PFI) were detained or arrested in searches across seven States on Tuesday.

The latest round of searches came just five days after a similar pan-India crackdown against the group accused of espousing radical Islam. The searches were conducted following the inputs from the intelligence agencies and leads generated after the interrogations of the 106 PFI activists arrested on September 22.

So far nearly 300 activists/sympathisers have been arrested in two rounds of the searches within a week.

 The searches were mostly conducted by State police teams spread across Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.

On September 22, multi-agency teams spearheaded by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested 106 leaders and activists of the PFI in 15 States for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.

The NIA alone had arrested 45 people following searches at 93 locations in 15 States. The NIA is investigating

19 PFI-related cases

(including the five in which the searches were conducted on Thursday).

 As many as 46 PFI cadres have been convicted in NIA cases till so far and 355 persons have been chargesheeted by the agency.

The synchronised searches were conducted by police teams that fanned out across their respective States on Tuesday and made arrests in a swift manner.

While 25 persons each were arrested in Assam and Maharashtra, 57 were detained in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.  In Delhi, 30 people were detained followed by 21 in Madhya Pradesh, 10 in Gujarat and six in Maharashtra’s Pune. Besides, several persons were also arrested in Karnataka.

In Uttar Pradesh, the raids across 26 districts were jointly carried out by the Anti-Terrorist Squad, Special Task Force and the local police simultaneously. Documents and evidence were collected, Additional Director General (law and order) Prashant Kumar said.

Further action will be taken based on the evidence collected, Kumar said while adding that 57 people were taken into custody.

There was no immediate reaction from the PFI, which was formed in 2006 and claims to strive for a neo-social movement ostensibly for the empowerment of marginalised sections of India. It is, however, suspected by the security agencies to be involved in insidious activities and promoting radical Islam. The organisation was formed in Kerala and moved its headquarters to Shaheen Bagh in the national Capital in 2008.

Following the continued crackdown against PFI, the outfit is likely to be banned across the country.

Of the 25 PFI activists arrested in Assam in the fresh crackdown, 10 were held in Goalpara, five were nabbed in Kamrup (Rural) and three in Dhubri, followed by arrests in Barpeta, Baksa, Darrang, Udalguri and Karimganj.     

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier said his Government has been urging the Centre to ban the outfit for allegedly creating an eco-system for terror activities. 

In the national Capital, Delhi Police’s Special Cell carried out the searches in multiple locations, including Nizamuddin and Shaheen Bagh.

“We have conducted raids at multiple locations in the national Capital, including Shaheen Bagh and Nizamuddin. So far, we have detained 30 people associated with the PFI,” a senior police officer said.

Paramilitary forces were deployed in several places in the city where the raids were conducted.

“We have taken preventive measures and as part of it, we have deployed paramilitary forces in respective areas of the districts to ensure law and order situation and maintain peace and tranquility in the area,” a senior police official said.

No case has been registered as the investigation is underway, police said. The operation started after 12.30 am and continued till early morning, police said.

In Maharashtra, 25 activists were arrested from six districts, including Aurangabad, Thane and Nanded. Other than this, Pune police detained six people linked to the PFI and its political wing Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), officials said.   

The Madhya Pradesh Police detained 21 people from eight districts for their links with the PFI, State Home Minister Narottam Mishra said.

These people were detained on the basis of interrogation of the PFI activists arrested last week, Mishra, who is also the Madhya Pradesh government’s spokesperson, said.

In Gujarat, at least 10 people were detained from different parts of the State in raids conducted by a joint team of the state Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the NIA.

“They have detained at least 10 people for questioning from different parts of Gujarat with the help of the state police and ATS,” an official in Ahmedabad said.

The SDPI opened an office in Ahmedabad a few months back. In Karnataka, officials said several PFI leaders were detained in urban and rural areas of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts early in the morning. PFI leaders were taken into custody from Mangaluru, Ullal, Talapady and other areas in Dakshina Kannada district.

Five PFI persons were taken into custody by the Udupi district police in raids conducted in their houses. The raids were also conducted at Hoode, Gangolli, Byndoor and Adi Udupi.

The police department has been monitoring the activities of the detained leaders for the past six months and they have been taken into custody to prevent any untoward incident, the sources added.

The Maharashtra ATS on Monday told a court in Mumbai that it wanted to probe the links of five of the 20 persons arrested last week with organisations including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State and also investigate electronic evidence.

Four PFI activists were also arrested from Kerala’s Kottayam district and one from Kollam for allegedly engaging in violent activities during the State-wide hartal called by the organisation on September 23. The strike had followed the nationwide raids on their offices and arrests of their leaders on Thursday.

Sunday Edition

CAA PASSPORT TO FREEDOM

24 March 2024 | Kumar Chellappan | Agenda

CHENNAI EXPRESS IN GURUGRAM

24 March 2024 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

The Way of Bengal

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

The Pizza Philosopher

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

Astroturf | Lord Shiva calls for all-inclusiveness

24 March 2024 | Bharat Bhushan Padmadeo | Agenda

Interconnected narrative l Forest conservation l Agriculture l Food security

24 March 2024 | BKP Sinha/ Arvind K jha | Agenda