PFI official website goes inaccessible amid pan-India NIA raid

New Delhi, Sep 22: The official website of Popular Front of India (PFI) has been down on Thursday after NIA raided its various premises and detained 106 activists of the front, and arrested its Delhi chief Parvez Ahmed.

The raids were being conducted by the NIA and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 11 states. PFI's Chairman OMA Salam in Manjeri, Malappuram district has also been searched.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday held a meeting of top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and is believed to have discussed the searches at premises linked to the Popular Front of India and action against terror suspects, officials said.

Shah is said to have took stock of the action taken against the terror suspects and activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) across the country, an official said.

The Popular Front of India was formed in 2006 in Kerala and is headquartered in Delhi. The probe agency has filed two charge sheets against PFI and its office-bearers before a special PMLA court in Lucknow.

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. Those named in the charge sheet include K A Rauf Sherif, national general secretary of CFI and a member of PFI; Atikur Rahman, national treasurer of CFI; Masud Ahmed, Delhi-based general secretary of CFI; journalist ''associated with PFI'' Siddique Kappan; and Mohammed Alam, another CFI/PFI member. 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.