Barpeta (Assam): Three leaders of the proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) and Campus Front of India (CFI) were arrested by Assam police from Barpeta Road Railway station, police said on Saturday. Two of the three arrested are top leaders of PFI and one to CFI, superintendent of police Amitabh Sinha told reporters here.
The trio were arrested from the railway station on Thursday night when they arrived there by train from Delhi, he said. The CFI leader was identified to be its national treasurer Jahidul Islam while the PFI leaders are its Assam secretary Jakir Hussain and state president Abu Sama, Sinha said.
The police also seized Rs 1.5 lakh in cash and several documents from them, the SP said. Sinha said that the trio had fled from the state after both the outfits were banned in September 2022 and were continuing their activities from outside Assam.
Police was on their trail for long and the three are being interrogated to ascertain the reason for their visit, he said. Islam and Hussain were residents of Baksa district, while Sama hails from Barpeta. A total 36 PFI activists were arrested from different parts of the state and New Delhi during a national crackdown against the outfit in September. It led to a ban on the outfit the same month.
The organisation was found to be active in the minority-dominated districts, particularly in the char (riverine) areas, since 2014 when its activists began helping people from the community in filing documents for inclusion of their names in the National Register of Citizens. Prior to that, they were found to be mainly involved in educational activities in the riverine areas of Bengali-speaking Muslim dominated areas.
PFI shot into prominence in the state during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 and some of their activists were also arrested during the stir for alleged stone-pelting in the state. The CFI is the student wing of PFI. PFI, CFI and seven other associated outfits were banned by the Centre for unlawful activities in September, 2022. (PTI)
