On Thursday, three leaders of the banned Islamist organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) went ‘missing’ from Pathanamthitta as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out searches at 56 locations in Kerala linked to the PFI conspiracy case. The three PFI leaders are suspected to have fled from their residence upon arrival of the NIA teams in Pathanamthitta.
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Kerala: Three PFI leaders went missing in Pathanamthitta as soon as NIA started its crackdown across 56 locations during early morning raids@Viveknarayantw shares more details with @prathibhatweets. pic.twitter.com/SRKYCLEXbn
As per a report by Mathrubhumi, the 3 PFI leaders in the area left before the NIA raids, with one of them leaving just hours ahead of the NIA raid. The raids were conducted by NIA after intimating the local police. NIA will now probe the matter of the leaked information to PFI
As reported earlier, in a continued crackdown against the PFI, the NIA conducted searches at 56 locations in the state of Kerala. The searches are still going on at the premises and offices of several suspects having links with PFI, an organisation banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs in September this year with its associates, and affiliates for five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 by declaring it as an unlawful association.
The raids started early on Thursday in coordination with state police following specific inputs against PFI cadres who are accused of their involvement in several terrorist acts and the murder of several persons. The list of alleged PFI targets included Sanjith (Kerala, November 2021), V-Ramalingam (Tamil Nadu, 2019), Nandu (Kerala, 2021), Abhimanyu (Kerala, 2018), Bibin (Kerala, 2017), Sharath (Kamataka, 2017), R.Rudresh (Kamataka, 2016), Praveen Puyari (Karnataka, 2016), and Sasi Kumar (Tamil Nadu, 2016).
According to the reports, the searches are being held at the homes of the organisation’s second-level officials at Nedumangad, Thonnakkal, and Pallikkal in Thiruvananthapuram, and those who provided financial assistance to them.
The residence of Muhammad Rashid, the PFI’s state secretary, is also being searched in Pathanamthitta. The residence of Nizar, a member of the state committee, is also being raided. Apart from Nedumangad, Thonnakkal, and Pallikkal, searches are also being conducted in Kollam, Palakkad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode cities of the state.
The MHA had earlier said that the criminal activities and brutal murders have been carried out by the PFI cadres for the sole objective of “disturbing public peace and tranquillity and creating a reign of terror in the public mind”.
The MHA has also mentioned “international linkages of PFI with Global Terrorist Groups”, and that some activists of the outfit have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and participated in terror activities in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The current searches by NIA come months after the agency carried out searches at more than 150 locations across the country against PFI cadres. However, it is unclear whether anyone has been detained as a result of the raids.
