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Multiple PFI Leaders Arrested Across Delhi, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala And Maharashtra Following Raids

The police have detained several leaders from the People Front of India (PFI) in Delhi, Karnataka, Assam, Kerala and Maharashtra on Tuesday.

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on: 27 September 2022 5:51 am

PFI Hartal

Multiple arrests have been made across India on Tuesday following raids and crackdown on top leaders and functionaries of the Islamic outfit People Front of India (PFI) a few days back.?

As many as?30 people were detained in Delhi, according to police sources.

Assam?

As many as 25?PFI?activists were arrested from different districts of Assam in a fresh crackdown against the outfit.

The highest number of 10 PFI activists were held in Goalpara, five in Kamrup (Rural) and three in Dhubri, followed by arrests in Barpeta, Baksa, Darrang, Udalguri and Karimganj, they said.

Earlier, 11 people were arrested by the Assam Police from various parts of the state and Delhi, after a nationwide clampdown against the organisation since September 22.

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

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has claimed that documents seized during the nationwide raids conducted at offices of PFI and its members contain highly incriminating materials targeting prominent leaders of a particular community.?

Karnataka

The police detained several PFI?leaders in urban and rural areas of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. The leaders were taken into custody from Mangaluru, Ullal, Talapady and other areas in the DK district.

Preventive detention cases have been filed against them under sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) against the detained leaders, police sources said.

Meanwhile, five PFI leaders were taken into custody by the Udupi district police in raids conducted in their houses.

Sources said raids were conducted at Hoode, Gangolli, Byndoor and Adi Udupi.

The detained persons are from Byndoor and from 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, sources added.

Maharashtra

Police have arrested four activists of the PFI?from different locations in Maharashtra's Thane district for alleged anti-national activities.

The arrests were made on Monday night in a joint operation carried out in the district by local police and crime branch officials, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Laxmikant Patil said.?

Two of the activists were nabbed from Mumbra and one each from Kalyan and Bhiwandi towns, he said without elaborating.

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested 20 PFI members from different parts of the state in the multi-agency raids.

On Monday, the ATS arrested one more PFI activist from Nanded in the Marathwada region.

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

The ATS said it has recovered some literature and a book titled 'Who Killed Karkare' from one of the accused and seized his laptop and phone.

Kerala

Five PFI activists have been arrested from the Kottayam and Kollam districts of Kerala for allegedly engaging in violent activities during the state-wide hartal called by the organisation on September 23 pursuant to nation-wide raids on their offices and arrests of their leaders.

Four activists of the PFI?were arrested from Kottayam on Monday for breaking the glass of a bakery and damaging a KSRTC bus, police said.

From Kollam, a PFI activist was arrested on Monday for allegedly ramming into a police motorbike with his two-wheeler in his bid to escape the clutches of the police personnel.

The police were trying to catch him as he was allegedly intimidating and abusing those present along the Kottiyam-Pallimukku stretch of national highway 66 on September 23, they said.

While trying to escape the police, the accused rammed into the police patrolling bike and sped away without stopping.

The two officers on the bike were seriously injured with one of them still hospitalised, police said on Tuesday.

The accused, arrested from Kollam, has been booked for the offence of attempt to murder and remanded to 14-days judicial custody.

Masked men and miscreants had gone on a rampage in different parts of Kerala during the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by PFI, under the lens for alleged terror activities, and damaged state-run buses and ambulance, injured policemen and commoners, vandalised shops and threatened the public.

The violent incidents affected normal life in many parts of the southern state.

Kerala, where PFI has some strong pockets accounted for the maximum number of 22 arrests, officials said.

The PFI, formed in 2006, claims to strive for a neo-social movement ostensibly for the empowerment of marginalised sections of India, and is often accused by law enforcement agencies of promoting radical Islam

In near-simultaneous raids across the length and breadth of the country on September 22, a multi-agency operation spearheaded by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) led to the arrest of 106 PFI activists in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.?
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(with inputs from PTI)