Popular Front of India (PFI)
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Contents |
A backgrounder
A history of terror?
In sync with home ministry's efforts to build a fresh case for banning Popular Front of India over alleged involvement of its cadres in terror cases, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has shared details with the ministry of four terror probes where cadres of PFI and its political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) were chargesheeted or convicted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The four cases relate to chopping of a professor's palm in Kerala's Idukki district; holding of a training camp in Kannur from where NIA allegedly seized swords, country-made bombs and ingredients for making IEDs; murder of Rudresh in Bengaluru and the Islamic State Al-Hindi module case in which attacks were plotted in south India.
Based on its probe findings, NIA has claimed that PFI pursues a strategy aimed at communalising Indian polity , enforcing Taliban brand of Is lam, heightening existing social divisions and maintaining a trained bank of volunteers for physical actions.
“PFI had consistently been indulging in actions detrimental to overall national security,“ NIA said while blaming the hardline outfit for seeking to impose religious orthodoxy on Muslims and using sister outfits like Sathya Sarani based in Malappuram to carry out “forceful conversions“, with the most recent cases being that of Akhila Asokan and Athira Nambiar in which PFI women's wing chief Sainaba A S name figures.
The dossier pointed out that many of PFI's founding leaders were associated with SIMI before it was banned.This includes former PFI chairman E M Abdurahiman, who was all-India general secretary of SIMI in 1980-81 and 1982-93, PFI national vicechairman P Koya who was with SIMI in 1978-79 and SDPI president E Aboobacker who was Kerala state president of SIMI in 1982-84, among others.
According to NIA, PFI which has presence in 23 states and is strongest in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka -has a well oiled-machinery to meet its violent ends. “The outfit has squads of trainers and experts in making crude bombs and IEDs, an intelligence wing...and action squads to run unlawful and violent activities. It has clandestine training centres...where training in martial arts and indoctrination is given,“ states the dossier.
PFI leader P Koya denies NIA's reported observations.“PFI believes in identity politics but does not work on sectarian lines. In our 20-25 years, there have been just a couple of cases of seditionUAPA linked to PFI,“ he stated.Koya said the outfit had condemned and disowned cadres behind the professor's palm-chopping. “Even in Kannur training camp case, the high court set aside conviction of 21 PFI cadres. There were no bombs there but only wooden structures aimed at depicting human physiology for our fitness workshops,“ he said.
2015/ warns cadre of IS traps; 2016: Safwan arrested
Prashanth MP, PFI feared IS traps, had warned cadre Oct 08 2016 : The Times of India
The arrest of P Safwan, the Popular Front of India (PFI) activist from Malappuram, in connection with his alleged links with the Islamic State has shocked the PFI leadership, but such an eventuality was not entirely unanticipated by the outfit.
Around a year ago the organisation had warned its cadres about attempts by Islamic State (IS) to attract Muslim youths and recruit them for militant activities. In a circular issued on September 2, 2015, PFI leadership had cautioned the cadres against such infiltration bids and indoctrination attempts .
“Utmost care should be exercised while inviting new members to the organisation. The person's family , job, connections, personality and character should be scrutinised. If there is any suspicion about a person's connections, he should not be entertained even if he possesses good qualities,“ the 2015 circular had said.
“The organisation will initiate action against the present members if they are found to be harbouring sympathies for such groups,“ it had further said.
PFI had also asked the cadres to inform the district or state leadership if they notice anyone defying its order. It had also cautioned the workers not share or comment on any posts related to these organisations in the social media.
Detailing the stance of the PFI, the circular had said a joint fight by all the like-minded people is needed to find solution for the problems faced by Indian Muslims. .“We don't have any connection with any organisation that have roots outside the country ,“ it had said.
When contacted, PFI state general K H Nazar told TOI that his organisation had conducted several awareness programmes on the dangers of joining IS. “This issue was discussed at length at our mandatory primary camps for the cadres. Central and state level leaders had appraised us of the threat posed by the IS . Some individuals may have strayed, but our cadres as whole are well-aware of the reality,“ he said.
Nazar said PFI did not hold any public campaigns against the IS as it thought the work need to be done inside the community.
2015/ warns cadre of IS traps; 2016: Safwan arrested
Prashanth MP, PFI feared IS traps, had warned cadre Oct 08 2016 : The Times of India
The arrest of P Safwan, the Popular Front of India (PFI) activist from Malappuram, in connection with his alleged links with the Islamic State has shocked the PFI leadership, but such an eventuality was not entirely unanticipated by the outfit.
Around a year ago the organisation had warned its cadres about attempts by Islamic State (IS) to attract Muslim youths and recruit them for militant activities. In a circular issued on September 2, 2015, PFI leadership had cautioned the cadres against such infiltration bids and indoctrination attempts .
“Utmost care should be exercised while inviting new members to the organisation. The person's family , job, connections, personality and character should be scrutinised. If there is any suspicion about a person's connections, he should not be entertained even if he possesses good qualities,“ the 2015 circular had said.
“The organisation will initiate action against the present members if they are found to be harbouring sympathies for such groups,“ it had further said.
PFI had also asked the cadres to inform the district or state leadership if they notice anyone defying its order. It had also cautioned the workers not share or comment on any posts related to these organisations in the social media.
Detailing the stance of the PFI, the circular had said a joint fight by all the like-minded people is needed to find solution for the problems faced by Indian Muslims. .“We don't have any connection with any organisation that have roots outside the country ,“ it had said.
When contacted, PFI state general K H Nazar told TOI that his organisation had conducted several awareness programmes on the dangers of joining IS. “This issue was discussed at length at our mandatory primary camps for the cadres. Central and state level leaders had appraised us of the threat posed by the IS . Some individuals may have strayed, but our cadres as whole are well-aware of the reality,“ he said.
Nazar said PFI did not hold any public campaigns against the IS as it thought the work need to be done inside the community.
As in 2022
Johnson T A, Sep 28, 2022: The Indian Express
The PFI was created in 2007 through the merger of three Muslim organisations in southern India, the National Democratic Front in Kerala, the Karnataka Forum for Dignity, and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu.
A decision to bring the three outfits together was taken in November 2006 at a meeting in Kozhikode in Kerala. The formation of the PFI was formally announced at a rally in Bengaluru during what was called the “Empower India Conference” on February 16, 2007.
The PFI, which emerged in the aftermath of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), has projected itself as an organisation that fights for the rights of minorities, Dalits, and marginalised communities. It has frequently targeted the alleged anti-people policies of the Congress, the BJP, and the JD-S in Karnataka, even as these mainstream parties have accused one another of being in cahoots with the PFI to gather the support of Muslims at the time of elections.
The PFI has itself never contested elections. It has been involved in carrying out social and Islamic religious work among Muslims on the lines of the work done by right-wing groups such as the R S S, VHP, and Hindu Jagaran Vedike among the Hindu community. The PFI does not maintain records of its members, and it has been difficult for law enforcement agencies to pin crimes on the organisation after making arrests.
In 2009, a political outfit named Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) evolved out of the PFI, with the aim of taking up the political issues of Muslims, Dalits, and other marginalised communities.
The SDPI’s stated goal is “advancement and uniform development of all the citizenry including Muslims, Dalits, Backward Classes and Adivasis”, and to “share power fairly among all the citizens”. The PFI is a key provider of ground workers for the SDPI’s political activities.
What is PFI’s footprint in Kerala?
The PFI has had the most visible presence in Kerala, where it has been repeatedly accused of murder, rioting, intimidation, and having links with terrorist organisations.
Back in 2012, the Kerala government headed by Oommen Chandy of the Congress, had informed the High Court that PFI was “nothing but a resurrection of the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in another form”. The government affidavit said PFI activists were involved in 27 cases of murder, mostly of CPM and R S S cadres, and that the motives were communal.
Two years later, the Kerala government told the High Court in another affidavit that the PFI had a clandestine agenda of “Islamisation of society by promoting conversion, communalisation of issues with a view to the benefit of Islam, recruitment, and maintenance of a branded committed indoctrinated Muslim youth for undertaking actions including selective elimination of persons, who in their perception are enemies of Islam”.
The 2014 affidavit was in response to a petition filed by Thejas, the PFI’s mouthpiece in Kerala, which had challenged the denial of government advertisements since March 2013. The affidavit reiterated that workers of the PFI and its predecessor National Development Front (NDF) were involved in 27 cases of communally motivated murders, 86 cases of attempt to murder, and 106 cases of a communal nature in the state.
In April this year, the Kerala BJP announced the launch of a campaign against “growing instances” of “religious terrorism” in the state, with the PFI’s alleged involvement. “In the last six years, 24 BJP-R S S workers have been killed in Kerala, seven of them by the Popular Front of India,” BJP state president K Surendran said on April 18.
On April 15, A Subair (44), the PFI’s Elappully (Palakkad district) area president and a member of the SDPI, was hacked to death outside a mosque. The district leadership of the BJP denied the PFI’s allegation that the murder was carried out by cadres of the R S S-BJP; however, police confirmed that a vehicle abandoned by Subair’s killers was registered in the name of R S S worker S Sanjith, who was killed last November, allegedly by members of the PFI and SDPI.
The day after Subair’s murder, an R S S worker named S K Sreenivasan (45) was hacked to death by five men who stormed into his two-wheeler shop in the BJP stronghold of Melamuri in Palakkad.
To prevent further violence and “sensing that religious hatred may emerge in the wake of the two killings”, the administration has issued prohibitory orders in the area until April 20, and deployed some 300 police personnel in Palakkad.
How successful have the PFI/ SDPI been in Karnataka politically?
The PFI/SDPI has influence mainly in regions with large Muslim populations. The SDPI has built a presence in coastal Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, where it has managed to win local polls for village, town, and city councils.
Until 2013, the SDPI contested only local elections, and had won seats in 21 civic constituencies around the state. By 2018, it had won 121 local body seats. In 2021, it captured as many as three local councils in Udupi district.
From 2013 onward, the SDPI has fielded candidates in elections to the Karnataka Assembly and Parliament. Its most creditable performance came in the 2013 state elections, when it finished second at the Narasimharaja seat, which is part of the Mysore Lok Sabha constituency. In 2018, the SDPI came third in Narasimharaja behind the Congress and BJP, winning over 20 per cent of votes.
The SDPI also contested the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections for the Dakshina Kannada seat, but could win only 1 per cent and 3 per cent votes respectively.
Politically, where is the SDPI placed in relation to the Congress and the BJP?
Although the PFI has not been proscribed by the Government of India, the BJP has often tried to paint the group as being extremist on account of its pro-Muslim stance.
In Karnataka, the BJP has often cited murders of workers of right-wing groups affiliated to the BJP by alleged PFI cadre to seek a ban on the PFI.
However, in more than 310 cases registered against the PFI in Karnataka since 2007, there have been convictions in only five. As far as Congress is concerned, since the SDPI aims for the same pool of votes as the Congress, it is seen as helping the BJP in communally polarised constituencies and in regions where Muslim votes can tilt election results, such as Dakshina Kannada. Ahead of the 2018 elections, the Congress is believed to have struck a deal with the SDPI to withdraw candidates from constituencies like Bantwal and Mangalore City North in Dakshina Kannada, and Sarvagnanagar and Hebbal in Bengaluru.
Former Congress leader Roshan Baig, who has shifted allegiance to the BJP, has in the past accused the Congress of having ties with the SDPI and PFI. However, when Baig was in the Congress, he was accused of being involved with the SDPI by BJP leaders like Shobha Karandlaje.
After coming to power in Karnataka in 2013, the Congress government dropped cases against SDPI and PFI members who were accused of involvement in communal disturbances during the previous BJP government’s tenure. Siddaramaiah’s then government approved the dropping of a total 176 cases filed against 1,600 PFI activists during 2008-13 by the BJP government. These cases were related to protests and communal flare-ups in Shivamogga (114 cases from 2015), Mysuru (40 cases from 2009), Hassan (21 cases from 2010), and Karwar (1 case in 2017).
2022: Centre bans PFI
Bharti Jain, Sep 29, 2022: The Times of India
New Delhi : The government declared the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its associates, affiliates or fronts — specifically naming eight of them — as “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for a period of five years.
The ban comes days after the National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and various state/UT police conducted a nationwide drive against PFI in cases relating to alleged terror activities, terror funding, terror training and radicalisation by its leaders.
Hundreds of PFI leadersand cadres have been arrested as part of the crackdown. The eight “associates, affiliates or fronts” are Rehab India Foundation, Campus Front of India, All India Imams Council, National Confederationof Human Rights Organisation, National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.
