Assam government consistently asking Centre to ban PFI: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on September 24 said that his government has been consistently requesting the Centre to ban the Popular Front of India (PFI) for allegedly "creating an eco-system for terror activities".

Notably, the Assam police have so far arrested 11 PFI activists as a part of the nationwide crackdown on the radical Islamic outfit, he said.

"The Assam government is consistently asking the Centre to ban the PFI…. we are convinced that the organisation needs to be banned,” Sarma said on the sidelines of a event here in Guwahati.

The state government, however, has given its inputs on the outfit to the Centre, the CM added.

It is to be mentioned here that, in a massive crackdown on the PFI, multi-agency teams spearheaded by the NIA arrested 106 leaders and activists of the radical Islamic outfit on September 22 in near-simultaneous raids in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.

Sarma said the police are investigating whether there are links among the outfit and the radicalisation modules in some madrasas busted by the law enforcement agencies since March this year.

“We have intelligence inputs that the PFI has created an ecosystem that encourages some people to join the radicalisation modules sponsored by the ISIS and Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS),” Sarma said.

The state police arrested the PFI activists as “there were intelligence inputs”, and specific cases were registered against them, he said. After these arrests, some people staged protests and blocked roads at Nagarbera in Kamrup (Rural) district.

"We are trying to find out people who instigated the protests and will take action against them,” CM Sarma said.

PFI's West Bengal state chief Minarul Sheikh was among the 11 arrested people and he was apprehended in New Delhi. Of the arrested PFI activists, four are from Nagarbera in Kamrup (Rural) district, two from Guwahati, and one each from Karimganj, Barpeta, Baksa and Nagaon.

The arrested people have been brought to Guwahati and are being interrogated separately at the Special Branch headquarters.

According to a statement issued by the Assam Police on September 22, leaders of the organisation were apprehended as there was “reliable information that they were making efforts to foment communal strife throughout the state”.