India bans PFI, allies for 5 years over terror links
Several leaders go into hiding; Muslim groups welcome move; Delhi deploys drones, tightens security; Centre’s action a political vendeta: CFI
India declared the Popular Front of India (PFI) group and its affiliates unlawful on Wednesday, accusing them of involvement in terrorism and banning them for five years, ater authorities detained more than 100 PFI members this month.
The PFI said it had dissolved itself and asked its members to stop their activities.
“As law-abiding citizens of our great country, the organisation accepts the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” the PFI’S branch in Kerala state, where it has a big presence, said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the PFI denied accusations of violence and anti-national activities when its offices were raided and dozens of its members were detained in various states.
The home ministry, in announcing the ban, said in a statement the PFI and its affiliates had “been found to be involved in serious offences, including terrorism and its financing, targeted gruesome killings, disregarding the constitutional set up.” The PFI’S now-banned student wing, the Campus Front of India (CFI), called the government action a political vendeta and propaganda. It denied the accusations of involvement in terrorism.
The PFI has supported causes such as protests against a 2019 citizenship law that many Muslims deem discriminatory, as well as protests in the southern state of Karnataka this year demanding the right for Muslim women students to wear the hijab in class. The ban is likely to stir an outcry among opponents of the government, which retains broad public support and a comfortable majority in parliament eight years ater Modi first became prime minister.
The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which works with the PFI on some issues but was not included in the ban, said the government had struck a blow against democracy and human rights.
“Freedom of speech, protests and organisations have been ruthlessly suppressed by the regime against the basic principles of the Indian constitution,” the SDPI said in a statement.
Some SDPI office were raided and some of its members were detained this month.
The government said in a notification it had banned the PFI and affiliates CFI, Rehab India Foundation, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation,
National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.
The government said it found a “number of instances of international linkages of PFI with global terrorist groups,” adding that some of its members had joined Daesh and participated in “terror activities” in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
India has been the victim of some major militant atacks over the past two decades.
The PFI came together in late 2006 and was launched formally the next year with the merger of three organisations based in south India.
It calls itself a “social movement striving for total empowerment” on its website. Severalmuslimorganisationswelcomedtheban. Chairman of All India Sufi Sajjadanashin Council, Naseeruddin Chisti said that if the action was taken ater considering the public order, then everyone should show patience and welcome the action taken by the government.
Similarly, Saiyed Zainul Abidin of Ajmer said that the ban has been invoked in the national interest as PFI was indulging in anti-national activity.
Muslim Students Organisation of India (MSO), a body of Muslim Sufi students too have welcomed the move, and said in a statement that PFI was indulging in extremist activity.
There was a heavy police presence outside the office of PFI in the Shaheen Bagh area of the national capital on Wednesday.
The Delhi Police, which is extra-vigilant to prevent any untoward situation that may arise due to the Centre’s action, is even using “drones” to keep an eye over the Shaheen Bagh area. The police could also be seen patrolling the streets just next to the PFI office.
Several PFI leaders and cadres of the organisation have gone into hiding.
Sources in the state said that many of the leaders and cadres who were present in public ater the Sept.22 raids and arrest of senior leaders by the NIA are now not seen in public.
Tamil Nadu state president of the PFI, Mohammed Shaik Ansari in a statement ater the ban said that the organisation would fight the ban legally. The state leader also termed the ban “illegal and undemocratic.”