Islamist group members held

INDIAN authorities detained scores of members of an Islamist organisation on Tuesday (27), accusing them of violence and antinational activities.

The arrests follow a crackdown earlier this month on the Popular Front of India (PFI) in which about 100 people were detained.

The PFI has condemned the detentions and related raids as harassment. “This is nothing but prevention of the right to democratic protests against the central government’s witch-hunt,” PFI tweeted on Tuesday.

Police in India’s Uttar Pradesh state said they detained 57 persons linked to the PFI on Tuesday because of “violent acts conducted by them and their rising anti-national activities across the country”.

Similar arrests were made in the northeastern state of Assam, its chief minister told reporters.

Earlier this month, the federal National Investigation Agency raided locations in the states of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and detained PFI members, accusing them of organising camps to “commit terrorist acts” or being involved in “anti-national activities”.