NIA rounds up PFI in 8 states; several workers in custody in Karnataka, Assam, Pune

New Delhi: The central agencies and police swooped down again on Popular Front of India's key activists in eight different states in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

The second round of raids by NIA comes days after the agency's shell-shocking raids on PFI across several states, arresting many of its leaders.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out raids based on inputs they collected during the questioning of PFI leaders detained in the first round of raids, according to India Today.

Dealing another blow to the outfit, the second round of raids saw the agencies detaining 45 PFI members in Karnataka, while seven have been arrested by state police in Assam at about 5 am from Nagarbera area of Kamrup district.

Those who were arrested in Karnataka, under preventive custody, will be produced in front of local tehsildar to seek their judicial custody, before sending them to prison.

"These PFI members had either stopped NIA personnel or protested earlier or had created trouble locally," the report said.

Among those key activists arrested by Karnataka police in the wee hours include PFI district president Abdul Kareem and SDPI secretary Shaik Masqsood—they are under preventive custody.

Alongside, police picked up six PFI members in Kolar district and PFI district president Ashfaq Jamkhandi was taken into preventive custody from Vijaypura, PFI leader Afhan Ali was picked up from Chitradurga and four more PFI members have been detained in Bellary district.

In Chamrajnagara, PFI district president Kapil and Secretary Suhaib are under preventive custody.

The state police in Pune, Maharashtra detained 6 PFI supporters for questioning over alleged funding.

Raids have been underway since last night in Uttar Pradesh's Siana and Sarurpur and Lisri Gate in Meerut, picking up many suspects from Meerut, Bulandshahr and Sitapur.

Around 12 people have been detained in the raids at several locations in Delhi including Shaheen Bagh and Jamia since late night Monday.

Teams of Delhi Police Special Cell and local police stations were also involved in the raids.

A couple of days earlier on September 22, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) descended on PFI workers at 93 locations in 15 states including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur.

Over 100 PFI members have been arrested by the ED, NIA and state police in different cases.