Palakkad: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested the former state secretary of the Popular Front of India (PFI) CA Rauf from his house in the Palakkad district of Kerala, the agency reported on Friday.

NIA arrests former PFI state secretary from Kerala

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According to a senior agency official, Rauf, who had been evading capture for a number of months, was apprehended last night after an agency raid was conducted at his home in the Pattambi neighbourhood of the Palakkad district. The NIA and Kerala Police were both keeping an eye on Rauf, and after the Central government outlawed the PFI, agency authorities stepped up their efforts to apprehend him.

Nationwide operation against the PFI

After the NIA began a huge nationwide operation against the PFI and detained the organization’s numerous cadres, officials claimed that Rauf had been hiding.

The action was taken shortly after the Centre banned the PFI for the next five years, branded it a “unlawful organisation,” and instructed all states and Union Territories (UTs) to “activate” their legal options against the group and its affiliates.

NIA Action plan

Based on information about a number of “instances of international linkages of PFI with Global Terrorist Groups like Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),” the NIA, the Enforcement Directorate, state agencies, and police forces conducted multiple raids in September that resulted in the arrest of over 100 PFI cadres throughout the nation.

As evidenced by the fact that certain PFI cadres have joined international terrorist organisations, the PFI and its associates are also accused of working covertly to increase the radicalization of one community by fostering a sense of unease throughout the nation.

Further allegations against the PFI include its complicity in numerous criminal and terrorism cases as well as its blatant disregard for national constitutional authorities.

PFI and its affiliates

The PFI and its affiliates are further accused of developing into a significant threat to the nation’s internal security with financial and ideological assistance from abroad.

On December 9, 2006, the PFI was established. The South India Council, a Bangalore-based organisation launched by the National Development Front (NDF) in 2004, was renamed the “Popular Front of India” by three south Indian Muslim fundamentalist groups: the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP), Tamil Nadu; the Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD), Karnataka; and the National Development Front (NDF), Kerala.