Delhi Police on Sunday arrested two men suspected of belonging to Daesh* who had traveled from Khorasan Province in Afghanistan.
“A couple, Jahanjeb Sami and Hinda Bashir Beg linked to Khorasan Module of ISIS (Daesh) apprehended from Jamia Nagar, Ohkla. Couple was instigating anti-CAA protests,” said Pramod Singh Kushwaha, Deputy Commissioner of Police.
— ANI (@ANI) March 8, 2020
In February, Enforcement Directorate ED, the country’s economic intelligence agency had suggested that the Popular Front of India (PFI) – an Islamic group - was funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The Kerala-based organization has denied its involvement in protests against CAA. Around 78 people have lost their lives in protests since December, 2019 – 53 in Delhi alone.
PFI’s role came to light during violent protests in Uttar Pradesh in December, 2019, where at least 18 people lost their lives and scores were wounded in clashes. The state police arrested over 100 activists for their alleged involvement in clashes.
The ED was also probing allegations that PFI distributed funds received from overseas sources to fuel protests against CAA in several parts of the country, including in Uttar Pradesh.
On 28 February, the High Court of Delhi had also issued notice to the federal government and Delhi Police on a petition seeking a federal probe to find out the involvement of some “anti-national” forces behind the protests against CAA.
CAA seeks to grant citizenship to illegal immigrants from minority communities of three neighbouring Islamic countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Conspicuously, Muslims were not included in the law.
Several opposition parties, civil rights organizations and university students have launched protests across the country against the law, as they felt it was discriminatory on religious grounds and against the secular credentials of Indian Constitution. The government however, denied these charges.
*Daesh (aka Islamic state/ISIS/ISIL) is a terror group banned in Russia
