The Popular Front of India which was given a long rope before being banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs was probably one of the most dangerous organisations the country has ever seen. The major difference between outfits such as the PFI and others is that the former was very much in between all of us and undertook its operations in public, unlike the rest of the terror groups which act from underground.
With the ban on the PFI being imposed, the outfit has gone completely underground. Their activities in India had fallen sharply, but the agencies continue to keep a close watch on them in the wake of reports stating that there are attempts being made for the outfit to revive.
Latest Intelligence on PFI
With the India activities down for the moment, the Intelligence Bureau has warned that the outfit is trying to activate its modules abroad. These modules once activated would team up with like-minded outfits and begin a disinformation war in India.
The Intelligence has also warned that there are plans afloat to use the social media extensively and begin a propaganda war against India, like how the Sikhs for Justice does.
The PFI even before the ban had invested heavily in its foreign modules. It was aware that it would be banned in India. The plan was to activate these international modules following the ban, so that its campaign against India could continue.
The Intelligence agencies also said that the PFI has many members abroad who can further its cause. They had been asked to wait, but now they have been signalled to begin their activities in full swing.
The foreign modules
Investigations post the ban clearly suggest that the PFI had invested very heavily in its modules abroad. The worry is that these are not just run of the mill modules. They have a lot of funds, which they will start to use now to run disinformation campaigns against India and also make attempts to get the Indian Muslims to indulge in violence.
In all the foreign modules comprise 13,000 members. They are based out of five Gulf countries. There is also a module that operates in Singapore. Further the investigations also found that the foreign modules operate 29 bank accounts in which the funds collected through donations are stocked. Most of the donations, the international modules have managed to collect are from Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
The Enforcement Directorate’s dossier on the PFI says that the real intention of the outfit is to carry out an Islamic movement in India through Jihad.
The activating of the foreign modules is being closely monitored. An Intelligence Bureau official tells Organiser that the PFI’s International modules will look to incite communal tensions ahead of major events in India, especially during Hindu festivals. They would look to repeat what they did during the Delhi riots, the Hathras unrest and also the anti-CAA protests.
Further the PFI has also managed to set up several committees for non-resident Muslim living abroad, especially those in the Gulf countries. The money that it has managed to collect will be effectively used to drive a hate filled propaganda war against India.
The India scenario
For now, the PFI cadres who went underground following the ban have been instructed to lie low. The outfit wants no attention whatsoever in India for now as they realise that the heat on them is extremely high.
Officials say that the outfit would not want to indulge in anything this early and risk being shot down immediately as all the agencies are keeping a close tab on the outfit.
For now, it has left that space for the Islamic State, a terror group for which the PFI has been accused of recruiting for. In the days, the PFI would look to re-emerge, but with a different name. The pattern that it would follow is what the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) did when it came back as the Indian Mujahideen, five years after it had been banned.
The PFI was banned by the Centre in September 2022 following multiple raids by the National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Directorate and various state police forces.
Following the raids, the ban order was issued. Along with the PFI, the Centre also banned its affiliates, the Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (NCHRO), National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala as an “unlawful association” under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
