Guwahati: Crackdown against the notorious Islamic organization PFI is on all over the country by NIA and state police. Assam police Special Operation Unit (SOU) has so far arrested 37 PFI leaders as a part of the ongoing crackdown against the radical Islamic organization. The Assam police SOU has arrested the state unit president of PFI Aminul Haque and the West Bengal unit head Dr Minarul Sheikh. High level police sources have revealed that both the arrested state unit heads are key PFI functionaries in routing funds for the organisation. Both Haque and Seikh will be key in probing suspected links between PFI and Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) in the state.
A resident of West Bengal’s Nadia district, Minarul Sheikh is a top PFI leader who is also a member of its national executive council of the organisation. Sheikh was a mentor to its leaders in Assam and other northeast states. Police sources said that Seikh was one of the key persons to routing funds to the Assam unit of PFI during the violent anti-CAA protest in December 2019. Sheikh was arrested from Delhi by Assam police and currently he is in the custody of the SOU. On 22nd September Assam police had arrested 11 PFI leaders in an overnight operation from various places of the state including the state president. These PFI leaders are involved in various anti national activities including attack on police during eviction in Darrang district in September 2021 and burning of the Batadrava police station in Nagaon district in May 2022. On Tuesday state police SOU arrested 25 leaders of PFI from various parts of lower Assam. Out of which 5 from Kamrup rural district, 10 from Goalpara district, 3 from Dhubri, 2 each from Barpeta and Bagsa and 1 each from Karimganj, Udalguri and Darrang district.
Darrang district president of PFI Anish Ahmed is also arrested by police. Ahmed is an executive member of the Jamiat Ulema and state general secretary of Imam council. It should be mentioned that Assam police has so far arrested 42 Jihadis linked with Al Qaeda and Ansarullah Bangla Team based in Bangladesh. It was found in the NIA and Assam police investigations of these Jihadi modules that PFI is linked with the rise of Jihadi in the state. One of the arrested Jijadi of Ansarullah Bangla Team Moqubul Hussain was the Barpeta district president of PFI. Highly placed Assam police sources said that police are now investigating the Jihadi funding module of PFI in the state. The SOU is also investigating the terror links of the PFI in the state. It should be mentioned that during the 2019 violent anti CAA protest in Assam, 17 cases were registered by police against the notorious Islamic organisation. It was found in the investigation that PFI was funding the violent protest in the state. Now police are also investigating the funding of PFI in these anti national activities with inputs from NIA and ED.
