6 PFI members arrested in UP ; "objectionable literature" recovered

Lucknow: Six members of the Popular Front of India were arrested on Saturday from two different towns in Uttar Pradesh, said the state Anti Terror Squad (ATS).

While picking four from Meerut on the intervening night of Friday and Thursday and other two from Varanasi last night, the ATS reportedly recovered "objectionable literature" and other materials from them.

Those arrested—identified as Mohammad Shadab Aziz Qasmi hailing from Shamli, Maulana Sajid (Shamli), Mufti Shahzad (Ghaziabad), Mohammad Islam Qasmi (Muzaffarnagar)—will face charges under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, among others, according to ANI.

The latest crackdown comes hours after the predawn raids by ED and NIA, calling it "Operation Octopus", in 15 states arresting over 106 members of PFI.

The central agencies descended at the dead of the night on four places in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana (1), Delhi (19), Kerala (11), Karnataka (8), Tamil Nadu (3), Uttar Pradesh (1), Rajasthan (2), Hyderabad (5), Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur, according to the report.

The raids have to do with five cases that NIA registered against the PFI following " continued inputs and evidence" that leaders and the cadres of the outfit involved in funding of terrorism, carrying out armed training camps and radicalizing people.

Alongside, the PFI faces a large number of criminal cases in different states over the last few years for its involvement in many violent acts.

The PFI responded to the nationwide raids by calling for 12-hour shutdown in Kerala which is marked by violent incidents of stone pelting at state buses, blocking roads. Two police officials reportedly got injured in Kollam in the violence during the shutdown.

The Kerala High Court has taken suo motu case against PFI leaders for calling the shutdown without a prior notice of seven days as per a Kerala HC order on January 7, 2019.