GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has reacted to the arrests of activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in the state.
Reacting to the arrests of PFI members in Assam, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Friday, stated that his government has been requesting the Centre to ban the PFI.
“The Assam government has consistently been requesting the central government to ban the PFI,” said CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.
A total of eleven PFI members have been arrested in Assam on various charges in the past two days.
Nine PFI leaders who were arrested on Thursday in a series of raids in Kamrup, Barpeta, Baksa, Karimganj and Nagaon districts were sent to five days of police remand.
On Friday, Assam police arrested one more PFI member from Guwahati.
The arrested PFI leader has been identified as Minarul Shaikh, the president of PFI, West Bengal.
“Assam Police has arrested some PFI activists as a part of national clamp down on the organisation. After the arrest, several people staged demonstrations in Nagarbera. We have registered a case against them,” said Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Police claim that the PFI members have been arrested “as there is reliable information that they were making all-out efforts to foment communal strife throughout the state of Assam.”
The Assam police further claim that the PFI leaders were also obstructing government servants in performing their official duties by use of force, while the organisation was also trying to conduct several programmes in some districts of Assam by violating prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC.