After it has been established by the Uttar Pradesh Police that radical Islamist groups like Popular Front of India (PFI) and mainstream political parties conspired to perpetrate violence and unleash riots during the anti-CAA protests in various parts of the state on December 20, the Uttar Pradesh DGP, Om Prakash Singh, has written a letter to Home ministry, requesting to ban PFI in the state as soon as possible.
While the Home Ministry of Uttar Pradesh government will go through the recommendations to ban Islamist outfit PFI before sending the letter to the Centre, the deputy CM of Uttar Pradesh, Keshav Prasad Maurya has come out to second the proposal made by the Uttar Pradesh DGP Headquarter.
He clearly implied that since there is sufficient proof that PFI was behind the anti-CAA riots in the state, it leaves no doubt that the organization should be banned.
#Breaking | Watch the first reaction from U.P Dy CM @drdineshbjp after U.P DGP @OP_Singh83 wrote to the Centre seeking a ban on the PFI.
TIMES NOW’s Amir with details. | #PFIBanIn2020 pic.twitter.com/gjXUZasue9
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) December 31, 2019
The request was made in the backdrop of a probe conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Police which found PFI’s involvement in the violent protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC) that took place on December 19. OP Singh said that objectionable material was found with people associated with PFI.
In wake of violent protests in the state against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Uttar Pradesh Police has said that it has devised a strategy to neutralise the Popular Front of India (PFI), seen as the inciter of most of the violence, and if all goes as per plan, the organisation will not be able to counter the action taken by them.
In a conversation with IANS over the phone on Monday, Om Prakash Singh had said: “We arrested as many as 23 PFI activists from various violence-hit areas and this makes clear who was the primary instigator. We have got significant information from the arrested PFI members but cannot disclose it at this point in time…..much of this information is shocking and destabilising. First of all, we need peace and amity. If peace is there, then only can there be law and order.”
The state police have obtained enough evidence and witnesses to build a tight case for banning the organisation,” furthered DGP OP Singh.
The UP Police had on December 26 asserted that members of radical Islamist organisations – Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political front, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), including political parties like Samajwadi Party were involved in instigating Muslim mobs to indulge in violence across the state during the anti-CAA protests.
Three people associated with the radical Islamic organisation PFI, including UP state head Waseem, had been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police for orchestrating violence by spreading misinformation through social media platforms.
Read: Ramalingam murder case: NIA arrests Myden Ahmed Shali, head of the ‘Dawah’ team linked to PFI
The PFI is currently active in seven states of India. According to Uttar Pradesh police, PFI has been active in different parts of India since 2010 and the members of this group have been involved in disrupting the peace and harmony in the country.
According to Singh, rioters have damaged public property worth around Rs 100 crore in seven districts during the protests. Singh said the UP police have arrested 865 people and filed 135 cases in connection with the protests.
Following the violence, the Uttar Pradesh government had taken strict actions against the culprits by attaching their properties for causing violence.
