By TCN News,
Kozhikode: The police yesterday conducted widespread raids in the offices of the Popular Front of India and the Social Democratic Party of India in Kerala. The raids were conducted following the discovery of several bombs and other weapons in Kannur district last day. The PFI state president Nasarudheen Elamaram stated that the organisation would go for a state-wide agitation against the move to create terror in the state in the name of a local incident.
The police have reportedly taken into custody certain PFI activists in connection with the finding of 10 bombs and weapons last day from Kannur. Several bombs and weapons were caught from abandoned houses, buildings and plots in different places yesterday also. PFI state president Nasarudheen Elamaram and general secretary P Abdul Hameed were reportedly present when the police raided the state headquarters in Calicut. The state committee office of the Campus Front in Calicut also was raided. Several leaflets and CDs were caught by the police from different places. The police also raided the houses of certain PFI activists and have taken case against one from whose house certain weapons were found, according to reports. However, there also reports that the police themselves had planted the weapons and then took them out at the time of raid.
Meanwhile, the PFI state leaders opined that the police were creating an atmosphere of terror in the name of local incidents. The raids following the statement of the CPI (M) state general secretary Pinarayi VIjayan that PFI should be kept away from religious institutions are mysterious, said president Nasarudheen Elamaram and general secretary P Abdul Hameed in the press conference at the state committee office after the police raid. They said that efforts were on to eliminate every power from the Muslim community. The weapons caught in Kannur were in an area where the CPI (M) has a majority. Certain powers are trying to destroy the neo-social movement which has been functioning in the society. All these powers have now joined together in the name of a local incident. This alliance consists of the bureaucratic lobby, political lobby and others. There is a well-planned conspiracy behind the raids. The PFI is always ready for an unbiased investigation and to ensure rule of law if some incident happens. The PFI will bring up very strong agitation in protest against the recent moves, they added.
The police-media moves against the PFI in the shade of a local incident are a part of the conspiracy to prevent Muslim upliftment, said EM Abdurahman, PFI chairman. Handing over Ma’dani to Tamil Nadu calling him a terrorist and throwing away the Jamat e Islami who had been with them (CPI-M) for long and calling them terrorists are all part of it. What is happening against the PFI is just a continuation of this. The media present as a big issue that CDs and leaflets were caught from the offices. Where else will the organisation keep its leaflets and CDs if not in its own offices? The home ministry should be ready to put an end to the unjustifiable raids, he said while talking at a programme of the Campus Front in Kollam.
The SDPI office-bearers have decided to offer fast in front of the state secretariat today in protest against the moves to insult the organisation ‘which has been functioning democratically for more than a year’. The Campus Front will organize marches in the campuses and in area centres all over the state in protest against the police raid in the organisation’s state committee office in Calicut.
In another development, the rural district police have reportedly asked the PFI to stop the training for the Freedom Parade in Aluva. The state DGP had said earlier that the police may reconsider its decision to let the PFI hold the Freedom Parade, following the allegations against the organisation and its activists in the attack on the professor accused in a blasphemy case. The PFI has been organizing Freedom Parades in various cities on Independence Day for a few years.