NIA Raids in Andhra, Telangana: ‘Abuse of Power To Suppress Rights’, Says PFI

In its searches, NIA has claimed to have unearthed Rs 8 lakh in cash, and incriminating material including daggers.

Representative image.

(Photo: PTI)

Popular Front of India (PFI) on Monday, 19 September, condemned the raids against its members conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, calling it a “vicious abuse of power to suppress minority rights movements,” The Indian Express has reported.

The NIA on Sunday had conducted raids at 38 locations across Hyderabad, Kurnool, and Nellore districts in relation to a case against Nizamabad district's Abdul Khader and 26 others. The accused is said to have provided training to commit terrorist attacks and promote enmity between different religious communities.

In its searches, the central agency has claimed to have unearthed Rs 8,31,500 in cash and incriminating material including two daggers, digital devices, and several documents.

A case was registered on 4 July against Khader by the Telangana Police under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy and unlawful assembly. Abdul Khader, Sheikh Sahadulla, Mohammed Imran, and Mohammed Abdul Mobin were arrested in the case.

On the instructions of Sahadulla, Imran, Mobin, and Khader had trained around 200 youngsters in kung fu, karate, and martial arts on the upper floor of Khader's Nizamabad house for six months, police commissioner KR Nagaraju told the media.    

The police also claimed that Khader was found to have conducted workshops on legal awareness, physical, and mental efficiency.

“The NIA is using this false case to target innocent members of the organization from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The agency is methodical in their manoeuvres in this case as it was in Bihar: arrest innocents in false cases and build a terror narrative,” VP Nasarudheen Elamaram, the national secretary of the PFI, told The Indian Express.

Asserting that Abdul Khader had been a martial arts trainer for decades and had been teaching youth from across the state, Elamaram said, “This raid drama is a vicious abuse of power to suppress minority rights movements. Popular Front is not an organisation that will bend or compromise its principles in the apprehension of these scare tactics. Our voice for justice will continue...”