‘PEOPLE WITH TIES TO PFI WERE VISITING VP ANSARI’S RESIDENCE’

Ansari’s official website. The staffer responding to the telephone call was given the questions again and later he confirmed that Ansari had seen the questions but the staffer could not say when, or if, Ansari, would share his answers.

According to the inputs, some individuals who were then members of the Central Waqf Council were “mentoring” SDPI members. This, too, was shared with the MHA by the intelligence agencies.

Sources said that since the Vice President’s house is considered sensitive premises and is guarded round the clock, it is virtually impossible for any unwanted or uninvited individual to gain access inside.

PFI was formed in December 2006 after the merger of three prominent Kerala-based Islamic organisations, National Development Front, Manitha Neethi Pasarai and Karnataka Forum for Dignity. It first grabbed the headlines in 2010 when its members chopped off the hands of a professor in Kerala, accusing him of “blasphemy”.

Former Vice President Hamid Ansari was in the news last year in September after he attended an event in Kozhikode which was co-organised by the National Women’s Front (NWF), the women’s wing of the Popular Front of India.

Earlier last week the outfit was booked for money laundering by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for its alleged links with terror activities and funding.

In February this year, the Jharkhand government became the first state to ban the PFI, saying its members were “internally influenced” by the ISIS. The government said that an inquiry by its Special Branch revealed that some members of the organisation had gone to Syria secretly and were working for ISIS. This allegation was denied by the PFI.