Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday arrested two people in Varanasi, and summoned 70 others for questioning from different parts of Uttar Pradesh for their alleged links with the banned organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) during a special operation by the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the UP police on Sunday, an official spokesman said.

The spokesman said that in September 2022 PFI and its 8 affiliated organisation were banned by the Union government for destructive activities, promoting a terror-based, regressive regime, inciting anti-national and radical sentiments and posing a threat to the integrity, security, and sovereignty of the country.

He said at that time country-wide action was taken against the members connected with PFI and in this series one Abdullah Saud was arrested and a case was registered against him under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act at Lohta police station in Varanasi last year.

The spokesman said that two of the accused Parvez Ahmad and Raees Ahmad were absconding in the same case and a cash reward of Rs 50,000 was announced on their arrest.

"They were spreading radical ideology of banned organisation PFI in Varanasi and along with other accused two more cases were lodged against them in Chetganj and Adampur police stations," he said.

He said that Parvez and Raees were arrested during a special campaign by the Varanasi unit of ATS on the basis of electronic and physical surveillance. "Both the accused had gone underground and were changing their location frequently," he said.

The spokesman said that the ATS has identified 211 suspicious people who had links with the banned organisation in the past. "The ATS launched a one-day secret special campaign to take action against the identified suspicious people and field units in Noida, Saharanpur, Meerut, Moradabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bahraich, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Azamgarh were activated," he said.

The spokesman said that the Additional Superintendent of Police (East) was nominated as the nodal officer and 30 special teams were constituted to carry out the raids.

He said that during the raids 70 people have been summoned for questioning-11 in Shamli, 10 in Ghaziabad, 9 in Lucknow, 8 in Varanasi, 5 in Bijnor, 4 in Meerut, 3 each in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Barabanki, 2 each in Bahraich, Kanpur, Deoria and 1 each in Sitapur, Moradabad, Balrampur, Rampur, Siddharth Nagar, Bulandshahr, Amroha, and Saharanpur.

The spokesman said that the suspects were being questioned extensively and data analysis of electronic gadgets was being done to ascertain their social media activities and anti-national activities.

(With UNI inputs)