NIA, ED Conduct Multiple Raids Across 10 States; Over 100 PFI Leaders Arrested In Huge Crackdown
NIA, ED Conduct Multiple Raids Across 10 States; Over 100 PFI Leaders Arrested In Huge Crackdown
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reportedly conducted multiple raids at the premises of PFI leaders across the country.
The offices and homes of Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders were raided by the agencies and over 100 PFA leaders were arrested. (File Photo)
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted multiple raids in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and other states. The offices and homes of Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders were reportedly raided by the agencies and over 100 PFI leaders were arrested. The raids were also conducted at OMA Salam, the chairman of PFI in Manjeri, Malappuram district, news agency ANI reported. Following the raids, the PFI workers staged a protest outside the house.
#WATCH | Andhra Pradesh: SDPI workers raise slogans of “NIA Go Back” to protest against the NIA raid at the residence of an SDPI leader in Kurnool district. pic.twitter.com/VTTKdZk2th
Sources said the searches were being conducted at the residential and official premises of persons involved in “funding terrorism, organising training camps and radicalising people to join proscribed organisations”. “In a major action across 10 states, NIA, ED and state police have arrested more than 100 cadres of PFI,” sources told ANI.
Nine people linked with PFA have been detained in Assam’s Hatigaon area as Assam Police and NIA conducted joint operation, a senior police official told ANI.
NIA earlier this month also raided 40 places in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh in a PFI case and detained four persons. The agency had then conducted searches at 38 locations in Telangana (23 in Nizamabad, four in Hyderabad, seven in Jagityal, two in Nirmal, one each in Adilabad and Karimnagar districts) and at two locations in Andhra Pradesh (one each in Kurnool and Nellore districts) in the case relating to Abdul Khader of Nizamabad district in Telangana and 26 other persons.
In the operation, NIA had seized incriminating materials, including digital devices, documents, two daggers and Rs 8,31,500 cash. As per NIA, the accused were “organizing camps for imparting training to commit terrorist acts and to promote enmity between different groups on the basis of religion”.
The PFI was launched in Kerala in 2006 after merging three Muslim organizations floated after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 – the National Development Front of Kerala, Karnataka Forum for Dignity and Manitha Neethi Pasari of Tamil Nadu. After the demolition of the Babri mosque, many fringe outfits had surfaced in south India and PFI was formed after merging some of them. The PFI describes itself as a neo-social movement committed to empowering people belonging to minority communities, Dalits and other weaker sections of society.
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