In a major development, the Central Government on Wednesday banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its associate organizations for 5 years. The government maintained that the organizations operated as unlawful associations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The affiliations banned along with the PFI include All India Imams Council, Campus Front of India (CFI), Rehab India Foundation, National Conf of Human Rights Org, National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala. According to the notification from the MHA, Rehab India Foundation received money from PFI members who, in addition to being members of the terror organization, were also members of the many affiliates that were coordinated by PFI members.
The PFI has a ‘Hub and Spoke’ connection with the partners or affiliates. The banned outfit served as the hub, using its members’ mass outreach and fund-raising abilities to improve its capability for illegal actions, while the fronts served as “roots and capillaries” via which the PFI was fed. The MHA also stated that PFI and its affiliates had the potential to disturb the public peace and communal harmony of the country.
This is after the NIA in the two rounds of raids recovered several incriminating documents and materials from PFI organizations settled in almost 17 Indian states. The documents included a training module to make IEDs and bombs from available domestic material and also the ‘Mission 2047’ document underlining the PFI goal in the Indian subcontinent for the years to come ahead. The officials also recovered a Mission 2047 CD containing material for converting India into an Islamic State.
These specific recoveries were made by the officers from the possession of the vice president of PFI Maharashtra. Several digital devices and pen drives were also recovered from the PFI hubs to reveal their connection with ISIS leading to Gajwa-e-Hind. A similar document named ‘India Vision 2047’ was recovered by the administration in July this year when the PFI had planned to launch an attack on PM Modi during his visit to Patna.
‘Mission 2047’ aiming at ‘Gajwa-e-Hind’
The document ‘India Vision 2047’ or ‘Mission 2047’ aims at destabilizing the well-developed infrastructure of the Indian sub-continent and establishing Islamic dominance over the ‘coward Hindus’ and subjugating them. It underlines the goal of the organization to establish the ‘Rule of Islam in India’ and to bring the Indian State and the majority of Hindus ‘to their knees’ when the country would complete its 100 years of Independence.
It aims at targeting Hindus and Hindu leaders to gain control over the country belonging to Hindus, popularly known as Gajwa-e-Hind. Gajwa-e-Hind refers to launching an attack on Hindustan and winning over non-Muslims by killing them or forcing them to convert to Islam. Such a war is executed to win over the ‘infidels’ and is called Gajwa.
The document which was shared by the PFI leaders with each and every member of the now banned organization feared the current status of Muslims in India and aimed at spreading the PFI roots to every household by 2047. The PFI paper showcased Islamists in India as victims and instigated their co-coreligionists to pick up arms for their ‘rights’ against Hindus. The eight-page document which was accessed by OpIndia claimed that the ruling community of India was Muslims and that they had now become second-class citizens in the country.
The ‘Mission 2047’ document states that the Islamists have been denied privileges, government jobs, and trade facilities since India’s independence and that the country has deliberately adopted discriminatory policies against Muslims, further favoring Hindus. It blatantly blames the Hindutva forces and alleges that they aggravated the socio-economic and political conditions of Muslims. “Muslim community is divided by silly differences and therefore it was difficult to fight Hindutva forces”, the PFI leaders add in the document playing the victim card on behalf of Muslims in India.
Instigating Islamists to arm weapons against Hindus in India
The recovered incriminating paper also says that it was Britishers who denied rights to Muslims and favored ‘Hindus’ in government jobs and trades. It blames the Britishers to have given power to the Hindus during India’s Independence in 1947. “We dream 2047 where the political power has returned to the Muslim community from whom it was unjustly taken away by the British Raj”, the document quotes.
Pertinently, it states that Muslims were and are a minority in the country and that they need not be in majority to win the war against Hindus. “If we look into the history of Islam, Muslims were always in minority and for victory, we do not need to have a majority. Popular Front of India (PFI) is confident that even if 10% of the total Muslim population rally behind it, PFI would subjugate the coward majority community to their knees and bring back the glory of Islam in India”, it added.
The PFI document also reiterated that Muslims on Earth were born only to establish the law of Allah and asked its cadres to keep in mind that the rule of Islam has to be established. It outlined 4 stages of progression towards establishing an Islamic rule in India. It asked all the Islamists-
first, to unite (under the banner of PFI) and establish Muslim identity beyond just being Indian,
second, to terrorize opponents (Hindus) and call for use of violence against Hindus
thrid, infiltrate the Judiciary, liaison with foreign Islamic nations for funding, stockpile weapons
and fourth, to grab power at the national level
“When we have enough trained cadres and stockpiling of arms, we would declare a new Constitution based on Islamic principles. External forces would also come for help at this stage. There would be systematic and widespread elimination of our opponents and return of Islamic glory”, the document read.
Creating rift between RSS and SCs/STs/OBCs
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its member have always been the fresh targets of PFI. We can’t forget how the PFI goons brutally murdered several RSS workers from the state of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka in past few years. Sanjith, an RSS worker in Kerala, was murdered by PFI cadres in November 2021. In Tamil Nadu, Hindu leader V Ramalingam was murdered for challenging Islamic Dawah activities in 2019. Other prominent cases of murder of Hindu leaders by the cadres of the outfit include Nandu (Kerala, 2021), Abhimanyu (Kerala, 2018), Bibin (Kerala, 2017), Sharath (Karnataka, 2017), R Rudresh (Karnataka, 2016), Praveen Poojari (Karnataka, 2016) and Sasi Kumar (Tamil Nadu, 2016).
Recently, amid the two NIA rounds of raids on PFI, the terrorist organization happened to hurl petrol bombs RSS office in Mattannur. Also, the Maharashtra ATS on September 26 confirmed that the RSS headquarters in Nagpur and several top BJP leaders were on the radar of the PFI. It had plans to collect information about the movement of RSS leaders during the annual Dussehra event organized by the Hindu outfit and then launch an attack on the RSS leaders.
This comes as no surprise as the ‘Mission 2047’ document recovered by the state administration from the Maharashtra PFI vice president reveals its strategy to project RSS as ‘casteist’ and form close alliances with the SC/ST/OBC community. The organization talks about creating a divide between RSS and SC/ST/OBCs. “We need to create a split between RSS and SCs/STs/OBCs by projecting that RSS is an organization interested only in the welfare of upper caste Hindus”, the document says.
It also directed its cadres to gain the trust of 50% of SCs/STs/OBCs and emerge as their representative to ultimately grab power at the national level. According to the PFI paper, increasing Hindutva and the RSS-backed administration have given Muslims enough reasons to feel that this government is working against Islam’s interests and that the trust deficit between the government and the Muslim community has become substantial enough.
The now-banned organization through its document asked its cadres to use available community platforms to instigate Muslims against Hindus. It also asked its members to keep handy information about Hindus and their leaders before the ‘showdown’, essentially meaning, that they should be ready with the information to murder the Hindus and Hindu leaders.
The PFI concludes their vision paper by stating that in the event of a full-fledged battle with the Indian state, they might want assistance from ‘friendly Islamic states’ like Turkey, a flag-bearer of Islam. While they claim to have forged close connections with Turkey, “other Islamic states must also be contacted”, the document concluded.
PFI linked to terrorist organisation, says MHA
The MHA in the notice issued on September 28 stated that some PFI activists had joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and taken part in terrorist acts in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Some of these PFI cadres affiliated with ISIS have been executed in these conflict zones, while others have been apprehended by state police and central authorities. According to the government, PFI has ties to Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned terrorist organization, and some of its founding members are leaders of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), another banned organization.
#BREAKING Central Government bans Popular Front of India and associated entities for a period of five years under the UAPA.#PFI #PFICrackdown pic.twitter.com/Aka8yQfeDs
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) September 28, 2022
The Home Ministry went on to say that the PFI’s office-bearers and cadres, along with others, were scheming and soliciting cash from within and beyond India via banking channels, ‘hawala’, and contributions as part of a “well-crafted criminal conspiracy.” According to the report, after collecting the finances, cadres moved, stacked, and integrated them through many accounts to present them as legal, and then utilized them to carry out various criminal, unlawful, and terrorist acts in India.
Other crucial recoveries from the PFI hideouts
Law enforcement agencies have recovered hundreds of incriminating materials from the hideouts of the accused organization. Prominent amongst them include a brochure and CD related to ‘Mission 2047’. The document has been recovered from the possession of the vice president of PFI Maharashtra and PE training material from Irfan Milli’s house, State President PFI Maharashtra.
A huge amount of undocumented cash has also been recovered from the PFI leaders of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and also document in a ‘short course on how to make IEDs using easily available materials’. Meanwhile, pen drives containing videos related to ISIS, and Gajwa-e-Hind have been found from the Uttar Pradesh PFI leadership and Marine radio sets from Tamil Nadu PFI leadership. Many such other materials have been taken into custody by the official.
PFI has a long history of claiming victimization on behalf of Muslims in India everywhere at times. However, the violence engineered by its leaders and cadres following the arrest of its leaders exposed the organization’s violent inclinations and demonstrated to the public that the arrests were conducted in the right direction.
The ban on the PFI comes following two rounds of searches by the NIA in a multi-agency investigation against the organisation for allegedly sponsoring terror operations in the nation. The initial series of raids occurred on September 22, with a follow-up on Tuesday, September 27 in multiple states, resulting in the arrest of at least 250 persons associated with PFI.
