HYDERABAD/VIJAYAWADA: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday raided multiple places in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in connection with a case linked to the Popular Front of India (PFI) for allegedly running terror training camps.
The sleuths of country’s top counter-terrorist taskforce, who searched 38 locations in the two Telugu States, also detained four suspected PFI activists in Telangana for questioning. They were identified as Shahid and Syed Sameer from Nizambad, Feroz Khan from Adilabad and Irfan Ahmed from Karimnagar.
These raids came two and a half months after the arrest of karate instructor Abdul Kader, along with three others, by the Nizambad police on charges of training the minority youths to carry out terror activities.
The case was initially registered by the Nizamabad police on July 4. The NIA took over the case on August 26 and grilled the four persons arrested by Telangana police -- Abdul Kader, Sheikh Sahadulla, Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Abdul Mobin.
During interrogation, the NIA reportedly found that Abdul Khader’s karate institution received `6 lakh from PFI members and was training the youths to carry out acts of terror. Abdul Khader’s wife, however, rejected the statements of the Nizambad SP and DCP and said that her husband had been teaching karate even before she married him.
On Sunday, the NIA launched simultaneous searches in the early hours at 23 locations in Nizamabad, four in Hyderabad, seven in Jagtial, two in Nirmal and one each in Adilabad and Karimnagar districts.
During the searches, the NIA sleuths seized digital devices, documents, two daggers and `8.31 lakh cash.
Searches spark tension in AP
The searches in Andhra Pradesh — where the residences of suspected PFI activists were raided in Nellore and Nandyal districts — sparked mild tension as local residents tried to stop the NIA sleuths and raised slogans against the agency.
It may be recalled that suspected PFI members had attacked a police station and ransacked private property at Atmakur town in Nandyal recently. During the investigation, police reportedly found that the PFI had trained some locals in martial arts and used to deliver incendiary speeches.
In Nandyal town, the NIA inspected the house of a suspected PFI activist, Yunus, at Viswas Nagar under II-Town police limits. Sources said Yunus had left house on Saturday itself. Meanwhile, a group of purported PFI and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) supporters gathered in the locality and demanded that the NIA stopped raiding a particular community. They raised slogans and tried to stop the returning NIA officers.
Local police, who were already alerted about the raids, tried to pacify the agitators but as they did not heed, some of them were taken into preventive custody. They were later let off. A separate team of NIA officers searched the house of another suspected PFI member, Ilyas, on Khaja Street at Buchireddypalem in Nellore. The sleuths reportedly questioned his family members as Ilyas, too, was not at home.
As the news of the search spread, locals gathered in strength and tried to obstruct the sleuths. They raised slogans and even prevented the vehicle in which the officers were leaving, demanding to know the reason behind the searches. Police intervened and dispersed the crowd.