Thursday’s multi-agency raids spanning the entire country to break the backbone of the Popular Front of India (PFI) were planned three months in advance in a hush-hush operation, top government sources have revealed to CNN-News18.
A week before authorities carried out the biggest clampdown yet on the outfit, all locations were verified and targets were checked. Once the teams received the final go-ahead, those in non-BJP states were attached with the CRPF to ensure their safety.
Sources said teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) were in the control room after midnight, including DG Dinkar Gupta. Similarly, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) control room was monitored by Director Tapan Decca himself. Post-midnight, NSA Ajit Doval also reached the IB control room to watch the progress of the operation which ended at 6am on Thursday.
Over 100 people, including top leaders of PFI, have been arrested so far in raids conducted across 10 states such as Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
The NIA had said the searches were taking place at the premises of people allegedly involved in terror funding, organising training camps, and radicalising people to join the proscribed organisation.
In a statement, the PFI condemned the move and called it an “attempt to silence dissenting voices".
Earlier on Monday, the NIA had carried out searches at multiple locations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Over 40 locations linked to PFI were raided, following which four people were detained. Reports had stated that the NIA also seized incriminating materials, including digital devices, documents, two daggers, and cash worth over Rs 8 lakh.
Formed in 2006 in Kerala and headquartered in Delhi, 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 February last year, the ED filed its first charge sheet against PFI and its student-wing Campus Front of India (CFI) on money laundering charges, claiming its members wanted to “incite communal riots and spread terror" in the aftermath of the Hathras gang rape case of 2020. 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.
Read all the Latest News India and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment