Pakistan Zindabad slogans were raised at a Popular Front of India (PFI) protest march in Pune on Friday, following the arrest of more than 100 members of the radical Islamic organisation across the country. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at the PFI office in Kondhwa, Pune, on September 22, as part of its nationwide action against the organisation.
#WATCH | Maharashtra: ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans were heard outside the District Collector’s office yesterday in Pune City where PFI cadres gathered against the recent ED-CBI-Police raids against their outfit. Some cadres were detained by Police; they were arrested this morning. pic.twitter.com/XWEx2utZZm
— ANI (@ANI) September 24, 2022
The PFI members had gathered outside the Pune District Collectorate office to protest against the arrest of its members in several states. During the protests, the PFI members were heard chanting slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. Apart from te anti-India slogan, they were also chanting Islamic slogans like ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘Nara e Takbeer’ during the protest.
Following the protest, at least 41 protestors were detained by police and taken away from the spot in police vehicles. The Pune Police have registered a case against 60-70 for unlawfully gathering in front of the District Collector’s Office. The Police also informed that a man named Riyaz Sayyad has been named in the FIR. Pune Police said that it was an unathorised gathering as PFI had not obtained prior permission for the protest
Maharashtra | Case registered against a man named Riyaz Sayyad along with 60-70 other PFI workers in Pune city for unlawful gathering to protest in front of District Collector office yesterday over NIA raids on PFI: Pune Police
— ANI (@ANI) September 24, 2022
“We have registered an offence against more than 60 persons, including 41 who were detained yesterday, for organising a protest without permission, for unlawful assembly and for blocking the road,” senior inspector Pratap Mankar of Bundgarden police station said. He informed that the police had earlier asked the organisers of the protest to not hold it, but they still went ahead.
Therefore, a case was registered against them under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 141, 143 ,145, 147,149 (all pertaining to unlawful assembly), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 341 (wrongful restraint), and also under sections the Maharashtra Police Act.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted several raids on locations linked to the Islamist organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) across several states, including Bihar, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Telangana, between September 21 and September 22.
The agency detained 106 cadres across the country, including senior organisation officials. According to sources, the searches were carried out by combined teams of the NIA, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and the relevant State Police, and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs was monitoring the organization’s actions.
The Popular Front of India (PFI) staged a hartal in Kerala on Friday to protest the National Investigation Agency’s statewide searches and arrests (NIA). On Friday, many cases of stone pelting were recorded in Kerala. Two trucks, as well as the windshields of two Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) vehicles, were damaged.
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala | One auto-rickshaw and a car were damaged allegedly by people supporting the state-wise bandh called today by the Popular Front of India over NIA raids pic.twitter.com/k305OP83jW
— ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2022
PFI protesters also threw stones at vehicles in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, and Wayanad. The NIA has apprehended PFI’s senior executives in Kerala, including chairman OMA Salam. Kerala state chairman CP Mohammed Basheer, national secretary VP Nazarudheen, and national council member Prof P Koya were all arrested.
After “taking note of the illegal call for hartal” issued by the organisation in Kerala, a division bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday launched suo motu contempt of court proceedings against the PFI and its state general secretary A Abdul Sathar.
The bench ruled that the PFI and its general secretary had violated the court’s orders by convening the flash hartal without adhering to the proper procedure as stated in “our earlier order of 2019.”
Cases of terror funding, money laundering and radicalization against PFI
Several reports have shown that PFI was involved in terror funding, money laundering, and indoctrination of Muslim youth in the country. In May 2022, the ED filed a ‘prosection case’ in a Rs 22 crore money laundering case against two PFI fanatics, Abdul Razak Peediyakkal alias Abdul Razak BP and Asharaf Khadir alias Ashraf MK. According to the charge sheet, these PFI officials set up a firm in Munnar, Kerala, to launder money obtained abroad and finance the organization’s “radical activities.” It is also stated that these leaders were involved in the creation of an alleged “terror group.”
The two are also related, according to the ED, to the payment of Rs 3.5 lakh (from August 2018 to January 2021) to PFI member Anshad Badharudeen, who was nabbed by the Uttar Pradesh Police Anti-Terrorism Squad last year, along with PFI member Firoz Khan. The authorities discovered homemade explosive devices, a 32-bore pistol, and seven live rounds in their possession.
According to News18, the ED investigated the accounts of over 600 donors and 2,600 recipients in India. The bulk of these accounts were discovered to be fraudulent, and the people whose identities were used to open the accounts were not found in physical verifications.
Telangana police raided PFI-run radicalisation camps earlier this year, wherein Muslim youngsters were given firearms training. The organisation has been linked to scores of murders in Kerala.
