New Delhi: Delhi Police arrested 30 people linked with the Popular Front of India during overnight joint coordinated raids at multiple locations in the national capital. The raids were conducted in coordination along with the central investigative agency at several places including in Shaheen bagh, Nizamuddin, Rohini district and in the northeast district areas, officials said.
A total of 30 members of the group were put under preventive arrest after the police action. According to Delhi Police, the suspects were planning a violent protest on a large scale across the city as well as a nationwide protest.
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Electronic devices were also seized from these locations.
In statewide raids in Karnataka, more than 75 PFI and its political wing Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) workers and leaders were taken into preventive custody, informed a police official.
"Over 75 PFI and SDPI workers and leaders have been taken into preventive custody, including the SDPI Yadgiri district president. The police raids are underway across the state. The cases have been booked under sections 108, 151 CrPC," said Alok Kumar, ADGP Law and Order, Bengaluru.
Read also: Crackdown On PFI: 6 members arrested in UP; objectionable literature recovered
In Uttar Pradesh, the state's ATS and UP Special Task Force took more than a dozen PFI leaders into custody in raids across the state, informed the police sources. Crackdown on the Popular Front of India continued in Maharashtra as the ATS and local police conducted raids in various parts of the state and arrested various persons linked with the organisation.
"Raids by ATS and local police are underway on people associated with PFI in many parts of the state," said the ATS. The NIA had arrested over 106 members of the PFI during its largest-ever raids spread across 15 states.
Read also: NIAs pan-India crackdown on PFI code-named Operation Octopus
The PFI 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. (ANI)
