More than 80 members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) were detained early Tuesday by the Karnataka Police in a preventive measure, officials said.
In addition to Mangaluru, Bagalkot, Bidar, Raichur, Gadag and other cities, these activists of PFI and SDPI were nabbed over suggestions of possible disturbances to public order, officials said.
The 80 people nabbed were taken to preventive custody by the taluk magistrate after they were produced before him, according to Alok Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order). Some people were held for a week, while others were held for 10 or 15 days during preventive custody, Kumar said.
Aside from the 80, 20 people were under scrutiny to see if they should go into custody or not, Kumar said. This preventive custody was to maintain peace in the society since they wanted to foment trouble and “create an impression that law and order have fallen apart,” he said.
Abdul Majeed Mysore, SDPI state president, said the BJP was targeting its political opponents. He said the NIA only had warrants against PFI and Campus Front of India (CFI) leaders, accusing the agency of misusing them.
Our party, PFI and CFI organizations are being terrorised by arresting innocent people for nothing more than political grudges. Majeed said in a statement, “We strongly condemn this.”
As a precaution, SDPI and PFI workers were detained earlier today, said Home Minister Araga Jnanendra. As a result of the recent NIA raids on their leaders, these workers created a tense situation in the streets, he said.
The police haven’t done any raids, according to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. “Tahsildars helped them take preventive measures,” he said.
The raids were also conducted in Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. In the last five days, such searches have been conducted across India against PFI.
