The Centre on Wednesday declared PFI (Popular Front of India), its associates, affiliates and fronts as an unlawful association for a period of five years. The Ministry of Home Affairs said that some of PFI’s founding members are leaders of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), and the outfit has linkages with Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) — both of which are proscribed organisations.
Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO), National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala are some of the outfits banned by the MHA for “unlawful association” with PFI.
The central government’s notification comes a day after over 200 people allegedly linked with the PFI were detained or arrested in raids across seven states, five days after a similar pan India crackdown against the group often accused of being linked to radical Islam.
Conducted mostly by state police teams, the raids were spread across Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, Assam and Madhya Pradesh. On September 22, multi-agency teams spearheaded by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested 106 leaders and activists of the PFI in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.
Founded in Kerala in 2006, PFI claims to strive for a neo-social movement ostensibly for the empowerment of marginalised sections of India and emerged in the aftermath of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The PFI trained the cadre to respond violently to anti-Muslim organisations and individuals.
The PFI has been involved in several controversies in the past few months, including the Karnataka’s hijab case, the Hathras rape and murder and the Citizenship Act Amendment protests. Recently, the PFI hogged headlines after the Bihar Police unearthed a terror module in Phulwari Sharif, a suburb of Patna, and revealed the outfit’s sinister plan to “make India an Islamic country by the year 2047”.
The outfit was also behind the chopping of a professor’s hand in Kerala for hurting Islamic sentiments. It was observed that some PFI-linked individuals joined the Islamic State conflict theatre in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, while some others were arrested in different IS-related cases in India.
The PFI tried to mask its instigations with its frontal organisation, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), and its participation in democratic proces
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