After two rounds raids across India with over 240 members of Popular Front Of India (PFI) arrested in a week, the government of India has banned the organisation for five years over alleged terror activities and said it has links with (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) ISIS.
The PFI and all of its affiliate organisations have been declared "unlawful" under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the government said.
“The PFI has links with the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Islamic State or ISIS (Islamic state of Iraq and Syria), and involved in several criminal and terror cases,” the government said.
The now banned outfit has been accused of raising funds, from both India and abroad, through donations as part of a "well-crafted criminal conspiracy".
"With funds and ideological support from outside, it has become a major threat to the internal security of the country," said a Home Ministry order.
“PFI has been involved in violent acts like chopping off the hand of a college professor in Kerala and cold-blooded killings of people associated with organisations espousing other faiths,” the BJP government said.
The Home Ministry said PFI and its affiliates have been indulging in unlawful activities "prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the country", and that they have the potential to disturb public peace and communal harmony.
Junior Home Minister Ajay Mishra Teni said the decision to ban the PFI was taken based on evidence gathered by central agencies (National Investigation Agency and ED) during the investigation.
It is pertinent to mention that many women and men of Shaheen Bagh who protested against Modi governments’ contentious new citizenship law CAA/NRC (Citizenship Amendment Act/ National Register of Citizens) have also been arrested as they were part of the Social Democratic Party of India which is the PFI’s political arm.
PFI was formed in 2006 after the National Development Front (NDF) - a controversial organisation established in Kerala a few years after the Babri mosque was demolished in 1992 - merged with two other organisations from the south.
At present, the PFI has a strong presence in Kerala and Karnataka and active in more than 20 Indian states.