Popular Front of India – Whenever this name is in news, one can be sure that something terrible has happened somewhere in the country. Such is the legacy of this outfit.
According to its website, Popular Front of India claims to be working for establishing an egalitarian society where freedom, justice and security are enjoyed by all.
Often, its members can be seen swearing by the Indian Constitution calling for upholding ‘secular’ ideals and democracy.
However, in reality, PFI is a radical Islamic extremist organization whose members have indulged in crimes from murders to rioting.
It shares close links with banned Islamic terrorist organisation Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
After SIMI was banned in 2001 in light of the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks in USA, members of the outfit formed what was called the ‘National Development Front’. In 2006, PFI was founded by many former members of SIMI along with Manitha Neethi Passarai (MNP) in Tamil Nadu and Forum for Dignity (KDF) which is based in Karnataka.
Many former leaders of SIMI are part of PFI and even hold positions in the outfit.
Abdul Rahiman, the former Chairman and current Vice Chairman of PFI was a former All India General Secretary of SIMI.
Abdul Hameed, the state secretary of PFI, was one of the state secretaries of SIMI.
Thus, it is the SIMI which has rechristened itself as the PFI.
While the PFI masquerades itself as a minority rights group, in reality, it is nothing but a terrorist organization.
Indian intelligence agencies have reported the role of the PFI in several attacks and communal clashes.
PFI’s Role In Riots
In August 2020, violent mobs descended down the house of a Congress legislator in Bengaluru and then proceeded to attack 2 police stations over a Facebook post about Prophet Mohammaed by the MLA’s newphew. The violence left four people dead and 60 police personnel injured. The NIA arrested 17 persons belonging to the PFI and SDPI, the political wing of the Islamist organization.
PFI also played a direct roled in instigating the Delhi Riots in 2020 which came to light when Delhi Police arrested 3 members of PFI – Mohammed Danish, Parvez Ahmed and Illiyas.
Illiyas who was the secretary of the PFI had contested in the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls on a SDPI ticket. The Enforcement Directorate has already registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against PFI for instigating and funding the Delhi Riots.
In 2015, PFI staged a rally in Karnataka’s Shimoga district during which stones were thrown on vehicles and three people riding a bike were stabbed by fanatic PFI members.
The controversy over wearing of hijab in Karnataka was fomented by Campus Front of India, a student outfit of PFI. Even the recent communal clashes during Ram Navami processions in different states supposedly has the hands of PFI.
PFI’s Role In Murders
Sanjith, a 27-year-old RSS Swayamsevak was hacked to death in Kerala’s Palakkad district when he was travelling with this wife and child. An office-bearer of the PFI and another from SDPI were arrested in connection with this murder.
Members of SDPI had taken out a rally in Kozhikode, on the same day to celebrate Sanjith’s murder.
In another incident, SDPI members brutally murdered an ABVP worker in Kerala’s Kannnur district.
In the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Ramalingam, a cadre of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) who resisted Islamic conversion in his locality, was brutally murdered near Kumbakonam by members belonging to PFI and SDPI.
In 2010, one Mohammed Ali belonging to the PFI chopped off the hands of a Malayalam Professor T.J. Joseph at Newman College over false allegations of blasphemy. Joseph had framed a question paper for B.Com second semester examinations in which he used the word ‘Mohammad’ to refer to writer P.T. Kunju Mohammed. However, a section of Muslim fundamentalists believed that he used the word Mohammed intentionally to insult the Prophet.
PFI – A Terror Outfit
In 2017, India Today conducted a sting operation on one of PFI’s founding member which exposes the true intentions of PFI – which is to establish an Islamic State.
To achieve its goal, the organization has been radicalizing the youth from different states mostly from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Many of them have even gone on to join the ISIS in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
The masterminds of the 2019 Sri Lankan Easter bombings that killed over 300 people were also reportedly radicalized by the PFI.
Recently, two Muslim men belonging to PFI were arrested in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly planning to conduct terror attacks, with the police recovering weapons and explosives from the accused.
The NIA had stated that the murder of the PMK leader Ramalingam was an act of terrorism aimed at inciting communal tensions.
The PFI is also accused of brainwashing Hindu women and marrying them off to Muslim men in order to change the demogrgaphy of the country.
In 2012, the Kerala Government had informed the state High Court that PFI’s activities are inimical to the safety of the country and that it is “nothing but a resurrection of the banned outfit SIMI in another form”.
Former Kerala CM Achuthanandan had on record said that PFI is aiming to convert Kerala into a ‘Muslim country’.
CPI (M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had said “SDPI is affiliated to the PFI and is a terror outfit engaged in divisive tactics and is a threat to Kerala’s secular society.”
Though several states have either recommended a ban or put PFI under surveillance, considering its trackrecord and the treat it poses to national security, it is high time that the rabid outfit is banned just like its predecessor.
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