HM Amit Shah’s meeting on Aug 29 led to crackdown on PFI today

New Delhi, Sep 22: In a major crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and local police launched multiple raids across 13 states in the early morning of Thursday and arrested 101 people.

Even as the massive hunt on the organisation across the length and the breadth of the country started today, it was cleared and instructed by Union home minister Amit Shah in a top-level meeting with senior officials of intelligence agencies on August 29.

The teams of NIA, ED were sent on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday and they started the operations even before they could wake up.

The multi-agency raids were carried out in several states including Telangana, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam and Uttar Pradesh.

Kerala topped the list with the arrest of 22 people followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra (20 each).

The NIA was asked to launch a pan-India crackdown to arrest the top leaders of the PFI/SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India).

Notably, the Union home ministry handed over several cases to the NIA related to the PFI. The state police were probing those cases.

Recently the NIA along with Bihar police conducted raids at several locations in the state and arrested two people for their alleged links with PFI. One was arrested from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Following the meeting with the home minister, the ED started probes to find out the PFI's funding, and foreign support.

After collecting all the details against the PFI, the agencies got a green signal from the MHA to conduct a pan-India crackdown.