Charges against PFI and its 7 associates that led to govt crackdown and ban
The groundwork for the ban was prepared since the NIA raided 93 PFI locations in 15 states on September 22
PFI ban: In a huge step against home grown terrorism, the Union Home Ministry has banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) and iits several associates for 5 years. The groundwork for the ban was prepared since the NIA raided 93 PFI locations in 15 states on September 22 followed by country-wide state police raids on the organisation that was radicalizing Muslim youth towards extremism.
Govt bans PFI and its 7 associates
The organisations which were also declared banned under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA include
Rehab India Foundation (RIF)
Campus Front of India (CF)
All India Imams Council (AIIC)
National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (NCHRO)
National Women's Front
Junior Front
Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.
Charges against PFI and its 7 associates
- In a late Tuesday night notification, the Union Home Ministry said some of the PFI's founding members are the leaders of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and the PFI has linkages with Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
- It said there had been many instances of international linkages of PFI with global terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
- The PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been working covertly to increase the radicalisation of one community by promoting a sense of insecurity in the country, which is substantiated by the fact that some PFI cadres have joined international terrorist organisations, the notification claimed.
- The home ministry claimed the office bearers and cadre of PFI along with others are conspiring and raising funds from within India and abroad through banking channels, hawala and donations among others as part of a "well-crafted criminal conspiracy", and then transferring, layering and integrating these funds through multiple accounts to project them as legitimate and eventually using these for various criminal, unlawful and terrorist activities in India.
Criminal violent acts carried out by PFI
Criminal violent acts carried out by PFI include chopping off the limbs of a college professor, cold-blooded killings of persons associated with organisations espousing other faiths, obtaining explosives to target prominent people and places and destruction of public property.
The National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and the state police forces jointly coordinated searches at the houses and offices of the PFI leaders and members across India. Searches were conducted at 93 locations in 15 states of India in which over 100 activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) were arrested.
Raids by NIA on PFA premises in these states
The states where the raids were conducted included Andhra Pradesh (4 places), Telangana (1), Delhi (19), Kerala (11), Karnataka (8), Tamil Nadu (3), Uttar Pradesh (1), Rajasthan (2), Hyderabad (5), Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur. The searches were conducted in connection with five cases registered by the NIA following "continued inputs and evidence" that the PFI leaders and cadres were involved in the funding of terrorism and terrorist activities, organising training camps for providing armed training and radicalising people to join banned organisations.
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