Nobody can call bandh without permission: Kerala HC slams PFI shutdown call

The Kerala High Court on Friday took suo moto cognizance of the statewide shutdown call given by the PFI (Popular Front of India) group.

Amid the 12-hour strike, the court was quoted as saying by news agency ANI: “Nobody can call for a bandh in the state without permission.” The dawn-to-dusk strike by the controversial outfit comes amid a widening crackdown by central agencies. The group has been targeted in multiple raids in the last few days.

The high court also said that the state police “should ensure that adequate measures are put in place to prevent any damage or destruction to public and private property of government and citizens who do not support the call for strike,” as per the news agency. On Friday, as the bandh began, incidents of stone-pelting and attack on state-run buses were reported. The incidents of violence, were, however, sporadic. Visuals also showed members of the outfit marching in Kottayam and Kochi.

Amid rising calls for ban on the controversial Islamic outfit, its premises across 15 states and 102 locations were raided on Thursday. More than 100 functionaries were arrested on terror funding charges. The organisation has been accused of links to a raft of hate crimes and murders.

Raids have been carried out in Delhi, Karnataka, and Assam among other parts of the country. Parvez Ahmad – the chief of the Delhi unit of the PFI – was among those arrested by the National Investigation Agency on Thursday.

He has been accused of developing links with some underground activists of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a banned organisation, while he lived in Saudi Arabia for 14 years, according to intelligence sleuths aware of the matter, HT had reported.