Days after conducting raids and arrests of Popular Front of India (PFI) leaders, the central government on Wednesday, 28th September 2022, banned the Islamist organization and its associates for 5 years. PFI finds its roots in the infamous Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). SIMI was responsible for several bomb blasts in various cities in India in the first decade of this century. After the organization was banned in 2001 and its network was busted in 2010, the persons involved in the Islamist organization rebranded it as the Popular Front of India.
From SIMI to PFI
The Popular front of India calls itself a neo-social movement allegedly committed to empowering people belonging to minority communities, Dalits, and other weaker sections of the society. However, it finds its roots in the banned terrorist organization SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India). Many Islamic outfits emerged in 1992 after the disputed structure on the site of the Shri Ram Janam Bhoomi was demolished. These organizations were focused on exploiting the sentiments of the Muslims in India and mobilizing them to strengthen their organizational structure. One such organization Islamic Seva Sangh (ISS) was founded by cleric Abdul Nasser Madani. He was arrested and jailed in the Coimbatore bomb blasts case and ISS was banned by the Indian government.
Most leaders of ISS then moved to the Islamist organization SIMI which was later banned as well in 2001 for terror activities. After SIMI was banned, these leaders formed another organization named National Development Front. In 2006, this organization merged with two other organizations to form the Popular Front of India. Many of its frontline leaders are from Kerala and have been a part of SIMI in the past.
Ahamadullah Siddique – the mastermind behind SIMI
SIMI was founded by Dr. Mohammad Ahamadullah Siddiqi. However, after SIMI was banned in India in 2001 for its involvement in terrorist activities, he claimed that it was not the same organization anymore. SIMI has a history of even aiding ISI against India. Though Dr. Mohammad Ahamadullah Siddiqi stopped working for SIMI long ago, he then moved to the US and continued anti-India activities from there. Open Source Intelligence Analysis has published a detailed thread of tweets putting all the information about those activities together and explaining how the US-based anti-India nexus of Islamists used to support the banned Islamist outfit PFI.
Ahmadullah Siddiqi is synonymous to the group he found – 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗜. Yes, a banned radical group with intense history of anti-India activities & terror links & even aiding ISI operations against India.
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 28, 2022
Siddiqi claims to have left #SIMI, but for what?
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US-based anti-India nexus of Islamists
Siddiqi relocated to the US in order to undertake anti-India activities on a larger scale from outside. There, he has created a complex network of anti-India fronts that directly work at the behest of Pakistan. ‘Justice for All’ is the name of the platform coordinating the activities and the names of its members are undisclosed. Siddiqi was also leading the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a group that promotes terrorism & extremism. He was accompanied by his Pak-Jamaat accomplice Abdul Malik Mujahid in this organization.
Siddiqi soon became an important figure in the US-Jamaat circles backed by Pakistan. The Institute of Communication Studies at Pakistan’s University of Punjab invited him as a keynote person and intellectual speaker in 2015. He was invited to do what he is infamous for – giving an Islamic perspective to the intellectual event.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸:
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 28, 2022
A prestigious figure among the Pak-backed, US-Jamaat circuit, Siddiqi visited #Pakistan in 2015 as a keynote & intellectual speaker at the Institute of Communication Studies (University of Punjab).
A SIMI perspective into an intellectual event!
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ISI affiliation of Siddiqi and others
Siddiqi is also an associate of Ghulam Nabi Fai, a former ISI agent who was convicted in the USA for receiving funds from ISI by violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Both studied together in India and the United States and have known each other for over 50 years. Fai leads Pakistan’s propaganda against India about Kashmir, while Siddiqi openly supports his goals. Siddiqi has said in one of his addresses that the US should put efforts into making Kashmir an autonomous independent nation.
𝗨𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗜𝗦𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸:
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 28, 2022
Siddiqi is also an accomplice of convicted ISI agent Ghulam Nabi Fai. Both studied together (in India & the US) have known each other for 50 years!
Fai runs Pak’s propaganda on Kashmir against India & Siddiqi publicly echoes his agenda.
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Chicago – the new epicenter of Islamism in the US
Dr. Mohammad Ahamdullah Siddiqi currently lives in Chicago. In the last many years, Chicago has become a safe haven for outfits controlling and carrying out anti-India activities in the US. These outfits include the Islamic Circles of North America, Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), the Islamic Medical Association of North America, Justice for All (JFA), and Sound Vision.
Siddiqi currently resides in #Chicago, which has developed into a haven for organizations that carry out anti-India campaigns in the US.
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 28, 2022
Orgs such as IAMC, IMANA, JFA, Sound Vision, & ICNA, all these groups have been exposed earlier are based/have offices in Chicago.
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The JFA is the hub where all the violent extremists from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh come together in the US and conspire to execute anti-India activities from outside India. For this purpose, they locate various fault lines in Indian society and use them to plan their activities for targeting India.
𝗝𝗙𝗔 is the epicentre where all radical extremists from Pakistan, Bangladesh & collaborators from India join hands in the US to bleed India out through a thousand cuts.
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 28, 2022
JFA with its allies such as 𝗜𝗔𝗠𝗖 target India through its various fault lines.
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Peddling anti-India agenda at a global level
These Islamist outfits targeted India on various international fronts and also executed various activities responsible for creating unrest inside the country. India has been attacked by JFA and IAMC on multiple occasions in an effort to have it banned in reports from the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). In 2013–14, IAMC persuaded USCIRF to focus on India, while in 2018–20, JFA’s Burma Task Force campaigned by spending USD 267K in 2018–20.
Both 𝗝𝗙𝗔 & 𝗜𝗔𝗠𝗖 have targeted India to get it blacklisted in the 𝗨𝗦𝗖𝗜𝗥𝗙 (religious freedom commission) reports on several instances. IAMC lobbied USCIRF to target India in 2013-14, & JFA’s Burma Task Force lobbied in 2018-20 by spending USD 267K b/w 2018-20.
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 28, 2022
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In addition, JFA and its partners IAMC and HFHR (Hindus for Human Rights) are harboring lies and distortions of minority discrimination in India in side events at UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) in Geneva. The same platform that Pakistan utilizes to support its propaganda against India about Kashmir by utilizing agents of the ISI like Muzzammil Ayyub Thakur.
The ban of 𝗣𝗙𝗜 & its offshoots seems to have rattled this Chicago-based eco-system.
— OSINTवा (@OSINTWa_com) September 28, 2022
Perhaps, many Indian enablers flocking to the US, especially 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗴𝗼 these days also insinuates how this cabal is attempting to mobilize its resources from India at one place.
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Therefore, the recent ban on the PFI and its allied organizations operating in India is a major blow to the Chicago-based eco-system peddling anti-India activities on a global level and supporting Islamists in India.
