According to media reports, the Modi government would soon ban the notorious Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), which has been accused of the violence and communal tensions that erupted in parts of the country last week during Ram Navami. According to sources, this decision might be made as soon as next week.
Government in process to impose a #PFIBan soon, tune in for more details on the #BREAKING story here – https://t.co/ESTVAev0zX pic.twitter.com/17iBtpl7N0
— Republic (@republic) April 15, 2022
The PFI is already outlawed in numerous states, but the government intends to ban it through a centralised notification. This group, which was founded in 2006, has come under scrutiny for its suspected involvement in a variety of anti-social and anti-national actions.
According to reports citing reliable sources, the Ministry of Home Affairs has adequate proof paving the way for this organisation to be blacklisted. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court in April 2021 that the Centre was in the process of banning PFI.
Both the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigation Agency have produced intelligence findings recommending that PFI be banned. PFI is an outgrowth of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was proscribed in 2001 following the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, according to the NIA dossier. The NIA used the fact that the same people had served on the boards of both organisations to buttress its argument. Meanwhile, according to the ED’s investigation, this group was crucial in generating funding for anti-CAA protests.
In 2020, six members of PFI’s political branch, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), were arrested in connection with the attempted murder of RSS activist Varun Bhoopalam. They also planned to assassinate Chakravarthy Sulibele, a renowned right-wing ideologue, and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya. There is a mountain of evidence pointing to PFI’s direct role in the anti-Hindu Delhi riots in 2020.
Also, on April 14, when violence erupted during Ram Navami processions in Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, MP BJP chairman VD Sharma claimed that the PFI was responsible for rioting and stone-pelting in Khargone, prompting a curfew.
After the National Investigation Agency (NIA) submitted to the Home Ministry a thorough dossier listing the Islamic group’s suspected ties with terror-related instances that the agency had examined, calls for a ban on the Popular Front of India gained new traction in 2017. The NIA had placed the PFI and its political branch, the SDPI, as suspects in the Bangalore blast case, the Kerala professor palm-chopping case, and Kerala love jihad case, among other cases, in its dossier.
