2nd Pan India crackdown on PFI: Raids in 8 states, about 200 activists detained

New Delhi: In the Round 2 of crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the police have rounded up more than its 200 activists, reports said.

Maximum detentions have taken place in Karnataka’s Bengaluru city, followed by Assam & Delhi while the raids were carried in 8 states including Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

The latest clampdown on the radical outfit comes days after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted pan-India raids on the extremist group and arrested more than 100 PFI activists and also its top leaders for allegedly providing logistic & monetary support to rioters.

Assam | 4 persons linked with PFI detained from the Nagarbera area today. Our operation against PFI is on in many parts of the district: Hiren Nath, ADGP (Special Branch) Assam pic.twitter.com/qTUIEz8PSk

— ANI (@ANI) September 27, 2022

Assam & Delhi accounted for maximum arrests of the PFI activists. In Assam, 25 workers were detained today while in Delhi, 30 were held. In Madhya Pradesh, 21 and in Gujarat 10 activists were taken into custody.

Karnataka | Several PFI members have been taken into preventive custody by Mangaluru city police. The cases have been registered under CrPC 107/151: N Shashi Kumar, CP Mangaluru City pic.twitter.com/qHoPciat6E

— ANI (@ANI) September 27, 2022

In Delhi, section 144 was imposed to restrain people from unnecessary assembly while paramilitary forces were also deployed in Shaheen Bagh area.

There is a growing buzz in political circles that the radical group may be banned, owing to its alleged role in creating communal unrest and also conspiring in anti-India plot.

The crackdown on PFI was also met with violent protests in some districts of Karnataka. Last week, PFI workers held demonstrations in Kerala, shouted slogans against the Centre and called for state-wide shutdown against ‘atrocity’ on its leaders. However, the bandh call came strong criticism of the High Court.

In latest incident, the slogan-shouting of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ to protest action on PFI created huge uproar, following which the cops took many of them in custody.