In the recent development, in connection with allegations of participation in terrorist activities, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at the offices and residences of Popular Front of India (PFI) state and district level officials in many states.
Several PFI, a radical outfit members were detained by the NIA, including P. Koya, the national executive member, O.M.A. Salam, the state president, C.P. Muhammad Basheer, and national general secretary V.P. Nasarudheen Elamaram.
There has been uproar among PFI supporters as a result of the raids and the arrest of PFI members. Social media is flooded with posts decrying the raids on PFI executives homes and offices. On September 22, 2022, The Campus Front of India, the student wing of the Islamist organization PFI, sent out a tweet in support of PFI and referring to them as the voice of democracy. Is PFI really a democratic voice?
What we established in our research
PFI is an Islamic Organization founded in 2006 in Kerala. Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KDF) and the National Development Front were combined to form the PFI (NDF). From south to north, the PFI has developed its foundation. This Islamic political group is the subject of a lot of controversy, including sedition accusations and plans to instigate communal conflict within the country.
Here are a few facts we have discovered about the so called “democratic voice” of India
Terror links
According to a report by the Hindustan Times, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) submitted its report in Kerala’s Kochi special court about the reasons behind the raids and the arrests of PFI. The NIA report stated that the accused had planned to engage in illegal activities that would incite religious animosity. The NIA claims that the group actively recruits vulnerable young people to join terrorist groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba, ISIS, and al-Qaeda. It further stated that the PFI planned to use violent Jihad and terrorist actions to establish Islamic governance in India.
This is not the first time PFI is suspected of having links with terrorist organization. As per the India TV report from 2010 the PFI was accused of having connections to the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). It was said that the proscribed SIMI’s members were expanding and regrowing under the PFI. According to information on the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government of India has outlawed SIMI because of its role in terrorist attacks around the nation.
Many PFI members belonged to SIMI, including PFI Vice Chairman E.M. Abdul Rahiman, who served as SIMI General Secretary from 1982 to 1993, was one of several PFI leaders who were SIMI members. Professor P. Koya, a member of the PFI national leadership, served as the organization’s founding member, while E. Aboobacker, president of PFI’s political branch Social Democratic Party of India, led SIMI’s Kerala unit.
In another report by SP’s Land Forces, PFI members were arrested by Kerala Police in July 2010 after they were found to be in possession of guns, CDs, and other documents that included Taliban and Al-Qaeda propaganda.
The Kerala Government also notified the Kerala High Court about PFI’s active involvement in 27 murder cases that year (2012), the majority of which involved CPI-M and RSS personnel.
North Kerala PFI training centres were searched by Kerala police in April 2013, and items like as firearms, foreign cash, human targets for target practice, bombs, raw explosive materials, gun powder, swords, and more were seized. In addition, a training facility in Narath, Kannur, was searched, and 21 PFI members were arrested along with terror-related materials and a dossier that had the names of several prominent people and organizations and which authorities considered to be a hit list.
In this year’s operation to dismantle two jihadi modules in Assam, the Assam police discovered terrorist connections between the PFI group and the Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a branch of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). Assam Police Special Branch ADGP Hiren Nath stated on June 4 that according to information on the South Asia Terrorism web, police have also discovered proof that PFI had severed connections with ABT.
16 complaints against PFI and two against its student wing, Campus Front of India, have been filed with the Assam Police (CFI). In the Barpeta region, the police reported an incident on April 15 that resulted in the arrest of 16 ABT members. It included Maqibul Hussain. Hussain confessed to being the president of the PFI in the Barpeta district during questioning. He was employed by PFI in lower Assam when he joined Ansarullah Bangla Team, but subsequently left to join the organisation, where he received training from Mehdi Hasan. Based in Bangladesh, the Ansarullah Bangla Team is a terrorist organisation with Al-Qaeda as its model.
Killing of RSS’s workers
Rudresh, the worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was hacked to death on October 6, 2016. As per the Decan Herald’s report, the police arrested four suspects the next day. The fifth suspect to be arrested was the Popular Front of India’s (PFI) district president for Bengaluru, Asim Shariff. The four primary suspects, as reported by the officer, said that they carried out their actions “at Shariff’s command.” According to the police officer, who cited the suspects, the PFI functionary had “instructed” them to “kill” two RSS employees, including Rudresh.
PFI involvement was also discovered in the murder of another RSS worker, Sanjith. A 26 year old RSS member, Sanjith, was reportedly killed on November 15 by members from the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political arm of the PFI. We found in India Today’s report that the PFI leader was arrested in connection with the murder. According to police, the alleged accused who was apprehended had a direct hand in the murder.
Along with Rudresh and Sanjith, SK Srinivasan was also murdered by the PFI goons. A six members gang attacked Srinivasan, a former district leader and RSS office holder, on April 16 at his motorcycle business in Melamuri nearby. The Indian express report states that the SK Srinivasan was killed to avenge the the murder of PFI leader Subair on April 15.
Aboobaker Siddik, the PFI district secretary for Palakkad, was arrested on April 16 for reportedly planning a plot to assassinate RSS leader S K Srinivasan. In connection with Srinivasan’s murder, more than 20 persons who worked for or were connected to the PFI or its political branch Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) were detained.
It was discovered during the SK Srinivasan murder inquiry that the names of more than 100 BJP and RSS leaders in Kerala had been put on a hit list for assassination by members of the extremist Islamic group PFI. BJP state general secretary C Krishnakumar and BJP youth leader Prasanth Sivan were listed on the list. The PFI list included the deceased Srinivasan as well.
Money laundering case against PFI
The ED inquiry into the funding of PFI has revealed that a significant sum of money, including funds from questionable sources, had been received by PFI.
According to a press statement from the Enforcement Directorate dated May 13, 2022, on February 6, 2022, the ED filed a prosecution charge against five officers/members of PFI and its student arm, Campus Front of India. A Supplementary Prosecution Complaint has also been filed by the ED under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2022, against two PFI leaders. The court found all of the suspects guilty of the crime of money laundering.
Abdul Razaq Peediyakkal and Ashraf Khadir, who are connected to other PFI leaders and members through foreign organizations, are the two leaders who are the subject of the Supplementary Prosecution case. With the intention of laundering money obtained from foreign nations, they were building the residential Munnar Villa Vista Project (MVVP) in Munnar.
Abdul Razaq and Ashraf M.K. were detained during the inquiry for the crime of money laundering in accordance with Section 19 of the PMLA. The PMLA investigation revealed that both leaders formed a criminal conspiracy to generate money in India and overseas and fraudulently transfer the money through unofficial and illegal routes. Other PFI members were actively involved in this criminal conspiracy.
According to another press statement issued by ED on June 1, 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 23 bank accounts linked to the Popular Front of India (PFI) with a combined balance of Rs 59 lakh and 10 bank accounts of PFI’s front organisation, Rehab India Foundation (RIF), with a balance of Rs 9.50 lakh in a money laundering case.
Since 2009, more than 60 crore rupees have been put in PFI’s accounts, including more than 30 crore rupees in cash. Similarly, since 2010, around Rs 58 Crore has been placed in the accounts of RIF, according to an statement by the ED.
PFI role in anti CAA protest
The CAA law sparked criticism and protests around the country. There were instances of violence in several parts of the nation. In the North of India, there was a lot of dissent and violence.
In our research, we found that the PFI, which is notorious for its anti-national activities, is said to have funded anti-CAA protest in the state of UP. During our research, we came across a report by Economic Times stating that according to the officials the Enforcement Directorate had discovered a “financial nexus” between the violent demonstrations in UP against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Kerala-based organisation PFI.
We also discovered that ED stated that the PFI raised Rs 120 crore. These money are said to have been utilized by PFI affiliates to support anti-CAA demonstrations across UP. The FIR and chargesheet from a National Investigation Agency investigation was filed against the PFI.
Hathras Conspiracy
During its investigations into the Islamic organizations suspected participation in “financing” anti-CAA rallies and the communal violence that occurred in Delhi, the ED discovered that PFI planned a conspiracy against the Hathras case to incite communal tension. The ED had filed its first chargesheet against the PFI and its student wing, Campus Front of India.
According to the chargesheet filed on October 5, 2020, Atikur Rahman and the other accused were arrested while travelling to Hathras with the purpose to cause a disturbance as part of a conspiracy. Atikur Rahman is a member of PFI. Atikur Rahman was charged with violating sections of the Indian Penal Code 153 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, place of birth, residence, or language), 124 (A) (sedition), 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to incite religious feelings), and 120 (B) on October 5, 2020. The 500-page chargesheet was filed against him (criminal conspiracy). Additionally, he is accused of violating many provisions of the IT Act as well as Sections 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), which deal with raising money for terrorism.
The phone conversation and the transfer of Rs 5,000 by Rauf to the bank account of the accused Atikur Rahman on October 5, 2020, provide additional evidence that the four detained suspects only travelled to Hathras at the direction of the PFI group.
Atikur Rahman was found to be in possession of one laptop, six smartphones, and 1717 printed documents. In these written documents, it was explained what measures should be used during the riots to prevent rioters from being identified.
PFI is an organization sharing close link with deadly terrorist organizations. It has been linked to many terrorist organizations in several cases, not just one or two. PFI has been engaging in anti-national operations inside the nation for years and encouraging many youths to join terror camps. Hence, it would be totally absurd to refer to PFI as the democratic voice of India.
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