BENGALURU: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said the action against PFI activists was only a preventive measure taken by the police based on inputs.
Talking to reporters here, he said, “Police have to take certain preventive measures based on inputs. The same has been done by the police of Karnataka and other states.”
Police earlier informed that in state-wide raids in Karnataka, more than 80 PFI workers and leaders its political wing Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) were taken into preventive custody.
The police, along with other investigative agencies, conducted raids across several states including Assam, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh as part of a crackdown against the organisation.
“Over 80 PFI and SDPI workers and leaders have been taken into preventive custody, including the SDPI Yadgir district president. Cases have been booked under Sections 108, 151 CrPC,” said ADGP (Law and Order) Alok Kumar.
The police conducted raids in Devanahalli, Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga, Raichur, Hassan, Ballari, Bagalkot, Koppal and other districts in the state.
Three PFI leaders were been taken into custody in Mysuru while two leaders were taken into custody in Chamarajanagar. Eight PFI leaders, including the district president, have been taken into custody in Mangaluru. Four people from Hoskote, three from Chikkaballapur and nine from Bengaluru Rural have been taken into custody.
The searches were conducted at the residential and official premises of persons involved in “funding terrorism, organising training camps and radicalising people to join proscribed organisations”.
The PFI was launched in Kerala in 2006 after merging three Muslim organizations floated after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 — the National Development Front of Kerala, Karnataka Forum for Dignity and Manitha Neethi Pasari of Tamil Nadu. After the demolition of the Babri mosque, many fringe outfits had surfaced in south India and PFI was formed after merging some of them. (ANI)