Assam Police detained nine persons linked with the Popular Front of India (PFI) in the state, a police officer said on September 22.
According to the police officer, a joint operation was launched by the state police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
“Last night Assam Police and NIA jointly launched an operation and picked up nine persons across the state linked with PFI,” the police officer said.
Out of the nine persons, four were detained from the Nagarbera area in the Kamrup district.
He added that the police and NIA jointly raided one PFI office in the Hatigaon area in Guwahati on September 21 night.
Meanwhile, in one of the largest actions, a joint team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and state police forces have arrested over 100 PFI leaders during raids across 10 states, reports said on September 22.
The searches were conducted at multiple locations in the largest ever investigation process till date.
These searches are being conducted at the residential and official premises of persons involved in “funding terrorism, organising training camps and radicalising people to join proscribed organisations”.
The raids were conducted in Telangana, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and many more states, said sources.
NIA earlier this month also raided 40 places in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh in a Popular Front of India 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.
The Popular Front of India 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.
