india

Updated: May 03, 2019 21:33 IST

After the raids on the Popular Front of India (PFI) at 20 locations in Tamil Nadu, which yielded a rich haul of incriminating material, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is now looking for possible links between radical Muslim outfits and the notorious Islamic State (ISIS).

Though the raids were primarily in connection with the February 5 murder of PMK functionary Ramalingam by suspected Islamic radicals for opposing religious preaching in a Dalit enclave at Thirubuvanam in Thajavur district, the agency is probing the IS angle as well.

As such, the NIA is mulling taking into custody the 10 suspects who have been arrested by the state police in connection with the murder, as most of them are either PFI functionaries or activists. Sources say, custodial interrogation was necessary to decode the IS links, among other things.

The fundamentalist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), though decimated in its caliphate in the middle east, has spread its tentacles everywhere and has owned up to the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka. Earlier, the NIA had detained a few people who had returned from ISIS in Syria and those who had connections with the terrorist outfit.

Significantly, the massive NIA raids come close on the heels of the Sri Lanka bombings, which have cast a shadow on radical Islamic outfits in the state. Though no conclusive evidence has surfaced, clouds of suspicion persist about radical Islamic outfits in the state having vital links with the fundamentalist group linked to the serial blasts in the island nation.

On Thursday, the NIA carried out searches on the PFI premises at Kumbakonam, Karaikal, Thanjavur and Trichy. The seizures included crude weapons, digital devices and diaries and fundamentalist literature aimed at indoctrination, besides diaries.

Meanwhile, PFI staged a demonstration in Trichy to condemn the raids, terming them as an attempt to foist cases on the organisation. Slogans against the Centre and the State were raised for fanning ‘Islamophobia’ to create tensions among the minority community.

SDPI president Dhehlan Baqavi made it clear that SDPI offices were not raided in the operation. However, he alleged that the timing of the NIA searches was suspect and that there was an ulterior motive to this. “We have condemned Ramalingam’s murder and have assured the police all cooperation. But, then the NIA raids raise serious questions about the motive,” he said.

“The case was entrusted to the NIA a month back. Carrying out searches in the aftermath of the Sri Lanka bombings smacks of a conspiracy to paint Muslim political organisations in the black and to create panic among the Muslim population. The BJP is using the NIA as a convenient tool to further its objective of targeting Muslim youths. Further, entrusting the case to the NIA, which the state police could proceed with, was also an unwarranted interference into the state’s autonomy, which the AIADMK government has surrendered,” fumed Baqavi, who is the Lok Sabha candidate from Central Chennai constituency as an ally of TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK).