Islamic extremism gets rare honour: Madurai Collector Aneesh Sekhar faces flak for presenting ‘Best Social Service Award’ to Islamist outfit PFI

On the occasion of Republic Day, the District Collector of Madurai Dr S. Aneesh Sekhar IAS presented the ‘Best Social Service Award’ to the radical Islamist organization Popular Front of India (PFI). The award was received by one S. Mohamed Abuthahir who is the Madurai District President of PFI.

The Madurai district collector has invited scathing criticism from various corners after he presented the award to the notorious Muslim extremist outfit. Several people took to social media platforms and criticised Aneesh Sekhar for his conduct unbecoming of a civil servant. 

A poster spread by PFI cadres reads: "Dr. S. Aneesh Sekhar IAS, District Collector of Madurai, Tamilnadu presents the 'Best Social Service Award' to Popular Front of India today (26.01.2022) during 73rd Republic Day Celebrations held at Reserve Police Ground in Madurai. The Award was handed over to S. Mohamed Abuthahir, Madurai District President of Popular Front."

The Popular Front of India is the new avatar of banned Islamist terrorist outfit SIMI. The Islamist outfit has been sowing the seeds of yet another Partition since its inception. 

The ultra-Islamist outfit has been working hard to build a victimhood narrative around this. For this, they have been organising children’s competitions and other programmes to instil hatred among children.

In 2019, Pattali Makkal Katchi worker Ramalingam was brutally murdered near Thiruvidaimarudhur in Thanjavur district by members belonging to the Popular Front of India and its political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). He had resisted Islamic conversions in the Pakku Vinayagam Thoppy village near Kumbakonam.

In Kerala, PFI terrorists brutally killed BJP leader Adv Renjith Sreenivasan in December 2021. Two months ago, another RSS leader was stabbed to death by PFI terrorists in Palakkad in a similar manner. In another incident, the Islamist outfit planned and executed the murder of RSS Teneri Mandal Baudhik Pramukh Sanjith on November 15. In October, a BJP worker named Biju of Koppara house, Manathala, Chavakkad of Thrissur. While visiting Kerala in November, RSS Sah-Sarkaryavah Dr Manmohan Vaidya had urged both the state and central government to further investigate the terrorist connections and anti-national activities of PFI and ban this terrorist outfit.

PFI is a model that can be compared with Hafiz Saeed’s led “Jamaát-ud-Dawa (JuD)” of Pakistan. It talks of lofty ideals, like humanitarian charity. But, in reality, it works as a germination centre for new seeds of terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) & Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Many countries also recently banned the JuD. Even Pakistan did the same, albeit under international pressure, and as a face-saving exercise. In India, the process has begun with Jharkhand becoming the first State to ban PFI in 2019.