PFI men held, cops on Youth Cong & NSUI netas’ tail

GUWAHATI: Two members of the Assam unit of Popular Front of India (PFI), an organisation whose origins lie in Kerala, were on Wednesday arrested for allegedly stoking the vandalism and arson in the state after Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill last week.


The focus of the crackdown, which had started with the arrest of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) member Akhil Gogoi in Jorhat, shifted to PFI and an organisation that calls itself the Campus Front of India (CFI) a day after state finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the police had identified those behind the violence.

Sarma claimed that PFI, CFI and a section of Assam Pradesh Youth Congress were involved in the attack on the Dispur secretariat on December 12 “in the name of protesting against CAA”.

Commerce and industry minister and government spokesman Chandra Mohan Patowary said on Wednesday that PFI’s state president Aminul Haq and publicity incharge Mohammad Muzamel Haq had been arrested and booked for inciting violence.

The police are looking for state Youth Congress president Kamrul Islam Choudhury, who was allegedly involved in a conspiracy to set ablaze the state secretariat. Patowary said NSUI vice-president Zuber Alam, allegedly involved in the vandalism at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra, was also under the scanner.

The police said two laptops, two cellphones, a computer, sticks and “incriminating” documents had been seized from PFI’s state headquarters at Hatigaon in Guwahati. “The number of people arrested so far for participating in the vandalism and arson last week has increased to 339,” a police officer said.

PFI used its Twitter handle to condemn the “illegal” arrest of Haq. “Aminul Haq was taken into custody yesterday and he has not been released. Assam Police has also conducted illegal raids on PFI’s state office and residences of some state leaders,” it said. Satra Mukti Sangram Samiti, Akhil Gogoiled KMSS’s student wing, accused police of “unleashing terror” on anyone raising one’s voice against the CAA.