What has triggered a massive crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI)? Was it because the Centre realised that it was time to act on the group because things were going out of hand? Do some sections of the Muslim community under its influence commit acts of violence at the slightest provocation?
The answer lies in a carefully planned operation that the National Investigation Agency (NIA)-led multi-agency teams undertook last week to round up 106 leaders and activists of the radical Islamic outfit in 15 states for allegedly backing terror activities.
Raids were conducted in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur.
For quite some time, the demand for a ban on the PFI has been coming from different state governments. But it was only on August 29, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with NIA, Enforcement Directorate, and Intelligence Bureau officials to accord the green signal for action.
Apparently, the Centre thought that, before banning the PFI, it was vital to unearth the complete network of the outfit — so that a repeat of what happened after the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was avoided.
At that time, many SIMI leaders had gone underground and re-emerged under the banner of new organisations including the PFI.
This time, a lot of homework was done to list all those associated with PFI, its financial operation and operatives –so that the spillover is minimal and the sweep is completed without hiccups. Over 250 officers and staff of investigating agencies were involved in the crackdown.
We are told that the action against the PFI was planned for three to four months to ensure that the action across the 11 states was executed around the same time to prevent PFI cadres from escaping the dragnet or going underground.
As desired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval took charge of the nationwide raids that were carried out on midnight of September 22.
As a preparatory step, Doval held meetings with Kerala Police at a time when Modi visited Kochi for the commissioning of the INS Vikrant. After Kerala, Doval moved to Mumbai where he stayed at Raj Bhavan to hold meetings with security officials across the states.
Those rounded up by the NIA following the raids include PFI chairman O M A Salam, national secretary Nasaruddin Elamaram, Kerala unit president C P Mohammed Basheer and Delhi PFI chief Parvez Ahmed. All of these individuals have been accused of terror funding, organising terrorist camps, and teaching bigotry to people.
The PFI, which is believed to be headquartered in Kerala, has spread its network in 23 states in the last few years.
Apart from its main agenda to provoke the Muslim community by stoking fears of insecurity and an uncertain future, the PFI was seen at the forefront of the recent Hijab agitation in Karnataka schools and violent acts in different cities that followed the controversy over remarks made by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma in a TV debate.
Earlier, in 2019-2020, the PFI was suspected to be behind the agitations across India over the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which allowed fast-tracking of a grant of citizenship to non-Muslims in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The PFI worked in tandem with other groups to spread baseless fears among the Indian Muslims that they were set to lose their citizenship under this law. The CAA is yet to be notified for implementation since it was enacted in December 2019. The PFI’s role was also suspected in the Delhi riots of February 2020.
Ever since the latest crackdown, the PFI supporters have taken to the streets in Kerala and targeted the BJP and RSS establishments in Tamil Nadu and other states. They have criticised the Modi government for “using agencies to silence dissenting voices.” PFI Kerala state general secretary A Abdul Sattar has even said “any attempt to ban the Popular Front of India will be met with strong resistance.”
Why does the PFI get traction? Though it came into existence in 2006, it has followed the path of an earlier group, the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was set up in Aligarh in 1977.
By 2001, the SIMI earned notoriety for inviting a ban. The Supreme Court confirmed the ban in 2008. In 2019, the Centre extended the ban for another five years.
Like the SIMI, the PFI has been working among sections of the Muslim community in different places to spread insecurity and hatred against other communities but under the banner of welfare. But the objective is similar. For instance, in June this year, a Hindu tailor was brutally beheaded and killed in Jodhpur, Rajasthan for an alleged social media post in support of Nupur Sharma. Those involved in the killing were linked to the PFI.
Although the PFI has denied links with the SIMI and the Indian Mujahideen, its involvement was strongly suspected in the attack on a professor in Kerala whose hands were amputated over an offensive question in an examination paper.
Police have long also suspected the PFI’s hand in the numerous murders of Marxist as well as RSS workers in Kerala.
That is why, with increasing reports of involvement of the PFI in various acts of violence in other states, the Modi government decided that it could delay no further in pushing for a zero-tolerance policy against it.
But, more than police action, what is necessary is introspection among the Muslim community leaders as they cannot ignore its influence on the youth.
They have to be educated on the perils of encouraging groups like the PFI that want to curb the rights of women and others based on a narrow interpretation of Islamic law and insist that the Quran, the Sunnah, and the Hadith must be applied to India.
No group should be allowed to isolate the Muslim community in the name of alignment with the Ummah, the global Islamic community when it goes against India’s internal peace and communal harmony. The perception of victimhood that the PFI seeks to promote among the Muslim community will only harm the Muslims who want to participate in development.
(The author is a senior journalist and a well-known political commentator)