Kochi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday conducted raids at several locations linked to former members of the banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) across the state.

Searches are underway at various places in Ernakulam, Thrissur, Malappuram and Wayanad districts of the state, police said.

The houses of former PFI leaders Abdul Samad and Latheef were also searched in Wayanad and Thrissur districts, they said.

According to sources, the raids were launched to ascertain the alleged source of funding for the banned outfit.

The central government had on September 28, 2022 declared the PFI as an 'unlawful association' under UAPA and imposed a ban on it for five years.

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.