THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala police, intelligence units have been put on high alert following the ban on Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates.
All district committee, zonal committee and area committee offices of the PFI are set to be sealed and leaders from state to local level will be brought under surveillance. PFI state general secretary Abdul Sattar was taken into custody by a Kerala police team in Kollam district on Wednesday. He will be handed over to the NIA.
The NIA had issued a lookout notice against him as the police had earlier suspected that he was missing.
PFI has sizeable presence in Kerala with its activities spread across several districts. In view of the Centre’s ban, the state government has decided to take strict follow-up measures including sealing of offices, arrest of PFI leaders and sympathizers and preventive detention. Security and vigilance have been tightened across the state even as chief minister Mr Pinarayi Vijayan called a meeting of top bureaucrats and senior police officers to review the situation.
The offices of all the banned organizations, including the PFI, will be sealed. Bank accounts will be frozen. The police action will be taken in coordination with the district administration. The police have collected all the details of the offices. Security has been tightened to avoid clashes.
Meanwhile, the Kerala police has decided to continue with the arrests and preventive detention of PFI activists who indulged in violence. So far 1800 activists and sympathizers of the PFI have been arrested in Kerala in connection with the recent violence during their hartal.
