Nearly 100 arrested in #NIA's 'largest-ever' raids in 11 states over terror funding charges #PFI https://t.co/Vfnwi5NM2r
— Greater Kashmir (@GreaterKashmir) September 22, 2022
In near simultaneous raids across the length and breadth of the country, a multi-agency operation spearheaded by the National Investigation Agency on Thursday led to the arrest of 106
The maximum number of arrests were made in Kerala (22) followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka (20 each), Tamil Nadu (10), Assam (9), Uttar Pradesh (8), Andhra Pradesh (5), Madhya Pradesh (4), Puducherry and Delhi (3 each) and Rajasthan (2).
According to the officials, the arrests were made during the raids which have been termed as the "largest-ever investigation process till date".
Details of the arrested
The officials said the searches are taking place at the premises of persons involved in terror funding, organising training camps, and radicalising people to join proscribed organizations.
Formed in 2006, the PFI claims to strive for a neo-social movement ostensibly for the empowerment of marginalised sections of India. It is, however, often accused by law enforcement agencies of promoting radical Islam. In a statement, the PFI said "the raids are taking place at the homes of national, state and local leaders of PFI. The state committee office is also being raided".
"We strongly protest the fascist
...anybody you disagree with, damn them...regime's move to use agencies to silence dissenting voices," it said.
The ED has been investigating the PFI's alleged "financial links" on charges of fuelling the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in the country, the 2020 Delhi riots, alleged conspiracy in Hathras (a district in Uttar Pradesh) over alleged gang-rape and death of a Dalit woman, and a few other instances.
The Popular Front of India was formed in 2006 in Kerala and is headquartered in Delhi.
The probe agency has filed two charge sheets against PFI and its office-bearers before a special PMLA court in Lucknow.
In February last year, the ED filed its first charge sheet against PFI and its student-wing Campus Front of India (CFI)
| ..the student/campus wing of an Islamist organization, the Popular Front of India. PFI is an Indian jihadi group, the latest identity of the National Development Front (NDF) and the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). They’re fond of IEDs, swords, Al Qaeda and Taliban propaganda, the perverse pleasures of Love Jihad, and have surprisingly well-trained connections with jihadis in Bangladesh and Pakistan... |
Those named in the charge sheet include K A Rauf Sherif, national general secretary of CFI and a member of PFI; Atikur Rahman, national treasurer of CFI; Masud Ahmed, Delhi-based general secretary of CFI; journalist "associated with PFI" Siddique Kappan; and Mohammed Alam, another CFI/PFI member.
In the second charge sheet filed this year, the ED had claimed that a hotel based in the UAE "served" as a money laundering front for the PFI.
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