The Jharkhand government on Tuesday banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) under Section 16 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, for indulging in anti-national activities in the state and its alleged links with terror outfits like the ISIS, a notification issued by the state government read.
According to the government notification, the PFI is banned with immediate effect under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1908.
The state government has reimposed this ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), months after the state’s High Court revoked the ban on the organization and berated the state government for not following due procedures and rules while banning them.
The Jharkhand government in its official order letter confirmed that this time around all the necessary procedures has been followed. It also mentioned the details concerning how the outfit was trying to disturb society and how their activities have become rampant. The PFI has links with other terrorist organizations and is trying to radicalize the people in the state through their ideology, which is inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), said the letter issued by the Jharkhand government.
The government citing four reasons and 13 cases to justify their decision. The state has even urged other states like Kerala and Karnataka, where the group is extremely active, to follow the suit.
As per the notification the PFI is active in states like Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar.
Welcoming the move, BJP leader, Vinay Singh specified that the PFI which are specifically, largely active in four districts of Jharkhand, had been also involved in the PM’s assassination plot.
Last year, in February, Raghubar Das’ government had declared PFI as unlawful and banned the outfit. But a few months later, the Jharkhand HC revoked state government’s decision to ban the PFI. The court slammed the state government of not going ahead with the norms and revoked its February decision to ban the outfit.
The PFI which has been accused of supporting anti-national activities has been extremely rampant in states like Kerala and Karnataka. In December last year, two out of ten people from Kerala who had fled to join the ISIS were reportedly former members of the extremist Islamist organisation, Popular Front of India (PFI).
Moreover, in July 2018, the Kerala police had made a breakthrough in cracking the murder of the 20-year-old student leader, Abhimanyu, and arrested four top leaders of the controversial Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which is the political front of Kerala-based ‘radical’ outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in connection with the Abhimanyu murder case.
Earlier, the same PFI was also accused of murdering an RSS worker in Bangalore. Similarly, last year NIA had also filed a charge sheet against PFI members for the murder of a Hindu Munnani member.
The NIA had submitted a report on the PFI to the Home Ministry, claiming that the group has been involved in terror acts, including running terror camps and making bombs, and it was a fit case to be declared banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Earlier, the former Vice President Hamid Ansari was also in the news for the wrong reasons after he attended a program organised by the violent Islamist organisation. The same outfit has also been accused of Hadiya’s ‘love-jihad’ cases in Kerala.
Interestingly, the Congress party has reportedly had an understanding with these radical Islamist parties in the past. During the Karnataka elections, the PFI and SDPI had withdrawn candidates to support Congress in the elections. Moreover, there were reports that soon after the Congress-JDs coalition government was formed in Karnataka, subsequently after taking the oath, the CM, Kumaraswamy had met with the leaders of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
