What is Popular Front of India (PFI), the organisation raided by central agencies

More than a hundred functionaries of the Popular Front of India, of PFI, were arrested across 11 states on Thursday in raids spearheaded by the National Investigation Agency.

The raids, which took place early in the morning, were carried out by the NIA, Enforcement Directorate and the state police as part of the "largest-ever investigation process till date".

Officials were quoted by the PTI as saying the searches took place at the premises of persons involved in terror funding, organising training camps, and radicalising people to join proscribed organisations.

• The Popular Front of India, or PFI, is a controversial Islamic organisation which is accused by various agencies and rivals of links with terror and financial crimes.
• The PFI was formed in 2006 in Kerala. The formal announcement came in 2007 in Bengaluru, after the merger with the Karnataka Forum for Dignity of Karnataka and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu. It later merged with other organisations in Goa, West Bengal and Rajasthan.It is headquartered in Delhi.
• It was started as a successor to the National Development Fund (NDF) which was allegedly linked to incidents of communal violence in Kerala earlier.
• The PFI claims to strive for a neo-social movement ostensibly for the empowerment of marginalised sections of India.
• The ED has been investigating the PFI's alleged "financial links" on charges of fuelling the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in the country and the 2020 Delhi riots.
• PFI activists have been accused of involvement in the murder of RSS and CPI(M) workers in Kerala.
• The PFI does not contest elections. It does not keep a formal record of its members

The maximum number of arrests were made in Kerala (22) followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka (20 each), Tamil Nadu (10), Assam (9), Uttar Pradesh (8), Andhra Pradesh (5), Madhya Pradesh (4), Puducherry and Delhi (3 each) and Rajasthan (2).

"We strongly protest the fascist regime's move to use agencies to silence dissenting voices," a PFI statement said.