The Ministry of Home Affairs has banned a radical outfit called Popular Front of India PFI for five years for alleged links to terror funding. The National Investigation Agency NIA Enforcement Directorate ED and state police conducted two rounds of raids on the PFI on September 22 and 27 in multiple locations in the country.
Along with PFI, its associate organisations including Rehab India Foundation RIF Campus Front of India CFI All India Imams Council AIIC National Confederation of Human Rights Organization NCHRO National Women s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala have also been banned.
The MHA said that PFI and its associates and affiliates indulged in unlawful activities that were harmful to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the country, with the potential to disturb peace and communal harmony of the country and support militancy. It added that PFI's founding members were leaders of the Students' Islamic Movement of India SIMI and that PFI has links with Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh JMB, both of which are proscribed organisations.
The ministry said that there have been a number of instances of international links between PFI and global terrorist groups like Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS. The ministry said that PFI has been working covertly to promote a sense of insecurity in the country and that some PFI cadres have joined international terrorist organisations.
The decision to ban the organisation was based on the demand of several states to ban PFI, along with the report of the investigating agencies.
As many as 106 people associated with PFI were arrested in the first round of raids, while 247 people were arrested or detained by the agencies in the second round.
The NIA and other agencies raided PFI members under Operation Octopus in Delhi, Karnataka, Assam, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Telangana on Tuesday. In the first round on September 22 the NIA raided 93 locations across 15 states, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur.