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.
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.
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.
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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