Police use tear gas to disperse members and activists of the Popular Front of India during a demonstration, outside the residence of Chief Minister Kerala at Trivandrum on June 6, 2022. (SUNEESH Kumar S / AFP)
NEW DELHI – India declared the Popular Front of India Islamic group and its affiliates unlawful on Wednesday, accusing them of involvement in "terrorism" and banning them for five years, after authorities detained more than 100 PFI members this month.
A government notification on Wednesday said that PFI authorities are raising funds in India and overseas as part of a "criminal conspiracy" and then transferring it through multiple accounts to show them as legitimate
A government notification on Wednesday said that PFI authorities are raising funds in India and overseas as part of a "criminal conspiracy" and then transferring it through multiple accounts to show them as legitimate.
These funds are then used to carry out "various criminal, unlawful and terrorist activities in the country," it added.
Earlier on Tuesday, police in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh said they detained 57 persons linked to the PFI because of "violent acts conducted by them and their rising anti-national activities across the country".
The PFI denied accusations of violence and anti-national activities when its offices were raided and dozens of its members were detained in various states.
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The Ministry of Home Affairs, in announcing the ban, said in a statement the PFI and its affiliates had "been found to be involved in serious offences, including terrorism and its financing, targeted gruesome killings, disregarding the constitutional set up".
The PFI has supported causes like protests against a 2019 citizenship law that many Muslims deem discriminatory, as well as protests in the southern state of Karnataka this year demanding the right for Muslim women students to wear the hijab in class.
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The PFI came together in late 2006 and was launched formally the next year with the merger of three organizations based in south India.
It calls itself a "social movement striving for total empowerment" on its website.