NIA carries out searches and arrests across India
Sep 22, 2022
New Delhi [India], September 22 : National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and the state police forces jointly carried out coordinated searches at the houses and offices of the top Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders and members across India on Thursday.
Searches were conducted at 93 locations in 15 states of India on Thursday. The states where the raids were conducted included Andhra Pradesh (4), Telangana (1), Delhi (19), Kerala (11), Karnataka (8), Tamil Nadu (3), Uttar Pradesh (1), Rajasthan (2), Hyderabad (5), Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur.
These searches were conducted at the houses and offices of the top Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders and members in connection with 5 cases registered by the NIA following continued inputs and evidence that the PFI leaders and cadres were involved in the funding of terrorism and terrorist activities, organising training camps for providing armed training and radicalising people to join banned organisations.
A large number of criminal cases have been registered by different states over the last few years against the PFI and its leaders and members for their involvement in many violent acts.
Criminal violent acts carried out by PFI include chopping off the hand of a college professor, cold-blooded killings of persons associated with organisations espousing other faiths, collection of explosives to target prominent people and places, support to Islamic State and destruction of public property. They have had a demonstrative effect of striking terror in the minds of the citizens.
During the searches conducted this morning, incriminating documents, cash, sharp-edged weapons and a large number of digital devices have been seized. The NIA has made 45 arrests in these cases.
Earlier in the day when the NIA conducted the raids, they found several incriminating documents, more than 100 mobile phones and laptops.
The PFI and SDPI workers staged a protest in Karnataka's Mangaluru against the raids, following which they were detained by the state police.
PFI workers sat on the road in protest against the NIA raid at the party office in Chennai.
NIA earlier this month also raided 40 places in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh in a PFI case and detained four persons.
The agency 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.
