Team News Riveting
Kochi, September 22
The Popular Front of India (PFI) has called for a 12-hour hartal on Friday in protest against the nationwide raids at its offices, houses of leaders and other premises.
The Kerala committee of the PFI has announced that they will be staging protests from 6 am to 6 pm on Friday. The move is aimed to protest against the action of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids in over 40 locations across the country on Thursday. This was the first nationwide crackdown against the organisation.
The state committee, in a press statement, called the detainment of the PFI leaders an act of “injustice” and “state-sponsored terrorism”. “The RSS reined fascist government is trying to silence voices of dissent using central agencies. All those who believe in democracy should come forward to make the hartal a success,” A Abdul Sathar, state General Secretary of PFI said in the statement.
Meanwhile, PFI activists on Thursday staged protests across Kerala against the raids. As news of the early morning searches broke out, PFI workers took out marches to the places where the raids were carried out. They raised slogans against the Union government and the investigating agencies. The central forces were deployed at the premises to deal with any untoward situation.
The protests marches were carried out in almost all districts including Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Thrissur.
As many as 14 office-bearers of the PFI, including national, state and district leaders, were taken into custody from the state by the central agencies, the source said. PFI state president C P Mohammed Basheer, national chairman O M A Salam, national secretary Nasaruddin Elamaram and others were among those in custody, source said.
