Popular Front of India: Killing the Frankenstein

From allegedly funding the anti-CAA protests and Northeast Delhi riots to stoking violence in Hathras, the Popular Front of India (PFI) has been accused of “sedition”, “disrupting state machinery”, “promoting religious hatred” and “conspiring to instigate communal violence” on a couple of occasion.

 Following the large national crackdown at the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its pinnacle leaders, the Union authorities on twenty eighth September banned the organisation and 8 of its affiliated outfits beneath the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The movement of the Central authorities got here days after a national crackdown at the 16-year-old PFI, arrest of over one hundred of its sports and seizure of numerous dozen properties. 

What is PFI?

The Popular front of India (PFI) got here into being in 2007. The agency got here into being following the merger of 3 Muslim organisations - the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Kerala, the Karnataka Forum for Dignity and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu.

It came into being after the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) become banned with the aid of using the Centre in 2001. It does now no longer discipline applicants in elections. PFI is just like Hindu right-wing outfits just like the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in that it does social work for Muslims.

It additionally claims it really works for the marginalised, minorities and people withinside the Scheduled Castes.Two years after PFI become shaped, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) was formed from in the agency to soak up the political issues. The contemporary ban on PFI will now no longer effect SDPI, due to the fact it is a registered political party, which comes beneathneath the purview of the Election Commission.

WHO AND WHERE IS THE MASTERMIND AFTER THE BAN

The mastermind,Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi,who founded SIMI still at large, continues to work against India from US.

To run anti-India campaigns on a bigger scale from abroad. Siddiqi shifted in the US where he constitutes a sinuous network of anti-India fronts that have direct influence of 𝗣𝗮𝗸𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻 & 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗮𝘁 .

Siddiqi is also an accomplice of convicted ISI agent Ghulam Nabi Fai. Both studied together (in India & the US) have known each other for 50 years.

Fai runs Pak's propaganda on Kashmir against India & Siddiqi publicly echoes his agenda.

Siddiqi currently resides in Chicago , which has developed into a haven for organizations that carry out anti-India campaigns in the US. Organizations such as IAMC, IMANA, JFA, Sound Vision, & ICNA, all these groups have been exposed earlier are based/have offices in Chicago.

The ban of 𝗣𝗙𝗜 & its offshoots seems to have rattled this Chicago-based eco-system.

Perhaps, many Indian enablers flocking to the US, especially 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗴𝗼 these days also insinuates how this cabal is attempting to mobilize its resources from India at one place.

Why was PFI banned?

On 27th September, the Union Home Ministry stated a number 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 (MB). Both MB and SIMI are proscribed organisations. It stated there were many times of global linkages of PFI with international terrorist groups including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  

The PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts had been operating covertly to growth the radicalisation of 1 network with the aid of using selling a experience of lack of confidence within side the country, that is substantiated with the aid of using the reality that a few PFI cadres have joined global terrorist businesses.

"Whereas, the Central government, having regard to the above circumstances, is of the corporation opinion that it is necessary to claim the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts association outlawed with instant effect, and accordingly, in exercising of the powers conferred with the aid of using the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 3 of the said Act, declares it as outlawed," it said.

 The Home Ministry stated Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat governments had additionally endorsed a ban on PFI. It claimed that PFI and its associates had been worried in violent terrorist sports with an intent to create a reign of terror withinside the country, thereby endangering the safety and public order of the state. The PFI, is encouraging and looking to put into effect a terror-based regressive regime, maintain to propagate anti-country wide sentiments and radicalising a selected segment of society to create disaffection in opposition to the country, aggravating activities which might be destructive to the integrity, protection and sovereignty of the country.

The home ministry claimed investigations have established clean linkages among PFI and its associates.

It stated Rehab India Foundation collects funds through PFI members. Some PFI members also are members of Campus Front of India, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala. The activities of Junior Front, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation and National Women's Front are monitored/coordinated with the aid of using the PFI leaders. PFI created those associates or fronts to beautify its attain amongst distinctive sections of the society including the youth, students, women, Imams, attorneys or weaker sections of the society with the only goal of increasing its membership, have an effect on and fund-elevating potential. The Centre, through every other notification, empowered the state governments to do so in opposition to those companies which have been affiliated with the PFI and the feasible movement in opposition to them can be seizure of locations and arrest in their members.

The home ministry stated these associates have a 'hub and spoke' relationship. PFI acts as a hub and utilises the mass outreach and fund-elevating potential of its  associates to reinforce its functionality for illegal activities  and those  associates function as "roots and capillaries through which the PFI is fed and strengthened" the ministry claimed.

The PFI and its associates  perform openly as socioeconomic educational and political businesses. But they had been pursuing a mystery time table to radicalise  a selected segment of the society, operating closer to undermining the idea of democracy and displaying sheer disrespect towards the constitutional authority and constitutional setup of the country, it alleged. Investigations in diverse instances have discovered that the PFI and its cadres had been again and again carrying out violent and subversive acts, the ministry claimed. Criminal violent acts completed with the aid of using PFI include slicing off the limbs of a university professor, cold-blooded killings of individuals associated with organisations espousing other faiths, obtaining explosives to target prominent people and locations and destruction of public property, it said.

What does the ban mean?

The ban makes PFI a terrorist organisation and would cripple its funding, recruitment, and different activities. Anyone found associating with the banned organisations may be arrested for terror charges. PFI and its workplace bearers might now no longer be capable of organise protests, seminars, conferences, donation exercises, or give you publications  This is due to the fact after the ban order, Central agencies and the state police can at once claim the activities illegal. The bank accounts, properties, and places of work of the PFI and related organisations can be seized or connected and there may be travel regulations on its office-bearers.

Why is the PFI beneathneath NIA, ED radar?

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been investigating the PFI's alleged "financial links" tied to charges of felling the Anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests withinside the country, the Delhi riots in February 2020, a purported conspiracy withinside the case of gang-rape and demise of a Scheduled Caste female in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, and some other instances. 

In February last year, the ED filed its first charge sheet against the PFI and its Campus Front of India (CFI) student wing on money laundering charges, saying that its individuals had desired to "incite communal riots and spread terror" withinside the aftermath of the Hathras gang-rape case. The human beings named withinside the price sheet include K A Rauf Sherif, CFl national general secretary and PFI member; Atikur Rahman, CFl national treasurer; Masud Ahmed, Delhi-based CFl general secretary; Siddique Kappan, a journalist "associated with the PF|" and Mohammed Alam, another CFI/PFI member.