NIA raids two PFI locations in Patna; electronic gadgets, documents seized

This is the first raid by the NIA against the Popular Front of India after the Centre banned the outfit for five years in September this year

Separate teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), with the assistance of Bihar police, on Tuesday conducted raids at two different locations in the state capital of Patna in connection with the Phulwarisahrif case allegedly linked to extremist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).

NIA sleuths during a raid. (File Photo)

This is the first raid by NIA against PFI after the Centre banned the outfit for five years in September. The PFI “terror module” case was unearthed by Patna police in July with the arrest of four people, including a retired Jharkhand police officer, for their alleged links with the group and their plans to indulge in “anti-India” activities.

Till date, five members of the group have been arrested in two separate cases in the state.

On Tuesday 5 am, many NIA officials, along with local police, reached the residence of Mohammad Margub Ahmed Danish, alias Tahir, and his friend at Munir Colony and Khankah area under the Phulwarisharif police station limits.

Margub was allegedly running a WhatsApp group called Ghazwa-e-Hind, a suspected terror organisation affiliated with the al Qaeda. He was allegedly the head of two such chat groups involved in anti-India activities and radicalisation of youths through various social media platforms.

‘Tahir’ was also supposedly in contact with foreign radicals through social media and had posted messages fueling anti-national sentiments. Currently he lodged in the Beur central jail. According to his family members, the NIA seized some papers from his house during the raid.

The NIA also searched the house of one Basarat Karim and seized a mobile phone and hard disk.

“NIA sleuths arrived here and asked the whereabouts of my son Kamil Karim, who is studying in class 12. The central agency seized his cell phone and hard disk assuring that these will be returned if our son is found innocent,” Basarat said, later admitting that he had talked to Tahir ‘many times’ over the phone.