PFI stir sparks clashes, Kerala HC takes note
Hindustan Times|September 24, 2022
Violent clashes and stonepelting roiled the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala on Friday as members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) damaged buses and shops, attacked policemen and hurled crude bombs, prompting the Kerala high court to issue a warning.
PFI stir sparks clashes, Kerala HC takes note

Functionaries of the controversial Islamic outfit issued a shutdown call after government agencies and police forces raided PFI premises across 15 states and one Union territory on Thursday, arresting 108 functionaries on charges of terror funding, radicalisation, and hate crimes.

The maximum impact was felt in Kerala, where PFI was founded in 2006 and from where the maximum number of arrests were made on Thursday. Masked men went on a rampage in many cities, burning tyres on roads, blocking vehicles and forcefully shutting the shutters of shops.

Around 70 government-controlled buses were damaged in different parts of the state, crude bombs were hurled at several places, and a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh office was attacked in Kannur. A PFI member was held with a live bomb in Kannur, and 200 workers were arrested in connection with the unprecedented violence. Stones were hurled at ambulances in Kozhikode and Thrissur districts, and 12 bus passengers and six drivers were injured across the state.

"500 people have been arrested in connection with that and 400 more have been put under preventive detention in connection with a hartal (strike) called by PFI," said additional director general of police (ADGP), law and order, Vijay Sakhare.

Hours after the violence broke out, the HC took cognisance of the clashes for violating a 2019 directive against instant shutdowns and asked police to book PFI state secretary A Abubaker.

"The action of the aforementioned persons in calling for the hartal without following the procedure contemplated in our earlier order, prima facie, amounts to contempt," the bench of justices Jayasankaran Nambiar and CP Mohammad Nias said, adding it will initiate suo motu contempt proceedings against the office-bearers of the outfit.

This story is from the September 24, 2022 edition of Hindustan Times.

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This story is from the September 24, 2022 edition of Hindustan Times.

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