Centre bans PFI for 5 years citing 'major threat to security' | Read full notification here

After a week-long crackdown on Popular Front of India (PFI) and hundreds of arrests from across the country, the Central government on Wednesday issued a notification imposing a five-year ban on the radical outfit declaring it an “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The Ministry of Home Affairs posted the notification on its Twitter handle and wrote that PFI and its associates/affiliates/fronts were found to have been involved in serious offences, including terrorism, its financing, targeted gruesome killings, disregarding the Constitutional set-up of India, disturbing public order etc. prejudicial to India's integrity, security, sovereignty.

Whereas, the Popular Front of India (hereinafter referred to as the PFI had been registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860) vide Registration No. S/226/Dist.South/2010 in Delhi and it has many associates or affiliates or fronts, including Rehab India Foundation (RIF) (Registration Number 1352, dated 17.03.2008), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO) (Registration Number S-3256, dated 12.09.2010), National Women's Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation (Registration Number KCH-IV-00150/2016-17, dated 02.12.2016) and Rehab Foundation, Kerala (Registration Number 1016/91);

And Whereas, the investigations have established clear linkages between PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts;

And Whereas, Rehab India Foundation collects funds through PFI members and some of the members of the PFI are also members of Campus Front of India, Empower India Foundation, Rehab Foundation, Kerala, and the activities of Junior Front, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO) and National Women's Front are monitored/coordinated by the PFI leaders;

And Whereas, the PFI has created the above mentioned associates or affiliates or fronts with objective of enhancing its reach among different sections of the society such as youth, students, women, Imams, lawyers or weaker sections of the society with the sole objective of expanding its membership, influence and fund raising capacity;

And Whereas, the above associates or affiliates or fronts have a 'Hub and Spoke' relationship with the PFI acting as the Hub and utilizing the mass outreach and fund raising capacity of its associates or affiliates or fronts for strengthening its capability for unlawful activities and these associates or affiliates or fronts function as 'roots and capillaries' through which the PFI is fed and strengthened;

And Whereas, the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts operate openly as socio-economic, educational and political organization but, they have been pursuing a secret agenda to radicalize a particular section of the society working towards undermining the concept of democracy and show sheer disrespect towards the constitutional authority and constitutional set up of the country;

And Whereas, the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been indulging in unlawful activities, which are prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the country and have the potential of disturbing public peace and communal harmony of the country and supporting militancy in the country;

And Whereas, some of the PFI's founding members are the leaders of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and PFI has linkages with Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), both of which are proscribed organisations;

And Whereas, there had been a number of instances of international linkages of PFI with Global Terrorist Groups like Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS);

And Whereas, the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been working covertly to increase radicalization of one community by promoting a sense of insecurity in the country, which is substantiated by the fact that the some PFI cadres have joined international terrorist organisations;

And Whereas, the Central Government is of the opinion that it is necessary to exercise its powers under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (37 of 1967) (hereinafter referred to as the Act) in view of the above stated reasons, which is substantiated by the following facts; namely,

(i) the PFI is involved in several criminal and terror cases and shows sheer disrespect towards the constitutional authority of the country and with funds and ideological support from outside it has become a major threat to internal security of the country,

(ii) investigations in various cases have revealed that the PFI and its cadres have been repeatedly engaging in violent and subversive acts. Criminal violent acts carried out by PFI include chopping-off limb of a college professor, cold blooded killings of persons associated with organisations espousing other faiths, obtaining explosives to target prominent people and places and destruction of public property,

(iii) the PFI cadres have been involved in several terrorist acts and murder of several persons, including Sh. Sanjith (Kerala, November, 2021), Sh. V.Ramalingam, (Tamil Nadu, 2019), Sh. Nandu, (Kerala, 2021), Sh. Abhimanyu (Kerala, 2018), Sh. Bibin (Kerala, 2017), Sh. Sharath (Karnataka, 2017), Sh. R. Rudresh (Karnataka, 2016), Sh. Praveen Pujari (Karnataka, 2016), Sh. Sasi Kumar (Tamil Nadu, 2016) and Sh. Praveen Nettaru (Karnataka, 2022) and the above criminal activities and brutal murders have been carried out by PFI cadres for the sole objective of disturbing public peace and tranquility and creating reign of terror in public mind,

(iv) there had been a number of instances of international linkages of PFI with Global Terrorist Groups and some activists of the PFI have joined Islamic State of Irag and Syria (ISIS) and participated in terror activities in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of these PFI cadres linked to ISIS have been killed in these conflict theaters and some have been arrested by State Police and Central Agencies and also the PFI has linkages with Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a proscribed terrorist organization,

(v) the Office bearers and cadres of the PFI along with others are conspiring and raising funds from within India and abroad through the banking channels, and the hawala, donations, etc. as part of a well-crafted criminal conspiracy, and then transferring, layering and integrating these funds through multiple accounts to project them as legitimate and eventually using these funds to carry out various criminal, unlawful and terrorist activities in India,

(vi) the sources of deposits on behalf of PFI with respect to its several bank accounts were not supported by the financial profiles of the account holders and the activities of PFI were not being carried out as per their declared objectives and therefore, the Income Tax Department cancelled the registration granted to PFI under section 12A or 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961).

The Income Tax Department also cancelled the registration granted to Rehab India Foundation under section 12A or section 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961,

(vii) the State Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat have recommended to ban PFI.

And Whereas, the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been involved in the violent terrorist activities with an intent to create a reign of terror in the country, thereby endangering the security and public order of the state, and the anti-national activities of PFI disrespect and disregard the constitutional authority and sovereignty of the state and hence an immediate and prompt action is required against the organisation;

And Whereas, the Central Government is of the opinion that if there is no immediate curb or control of unlawful activities of the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts, the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts, will use this opportunity to -

(i) continue its subversive activities, thereby disturbing public order and undermining the constitutional set up of the country;

(ii) encourage and enforce terror based regressive regime;

(iii) continue propagating anti-national sentiments and radicalize a particular section of society with the intention to create disaffection against the country;

(iv) aggravate activities which are detrimental to the integrity, security and sovereignty of the country;

And Whereas, the Central Government for the above-mentioned reasons is firmly of the opinion that having regard to the activities of the PFl, it is necessary to declare the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts to be unlawful association with immediate effect;

Now, Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (I) of section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), the Central Government hereby declares the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its associates or affiliates or fronts including Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO), National Women's Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala as an "unlawful association";

And Whereas, the Central Government, having regard to the above circumstances, is of firm opinion that it is necessary to declare the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts as an unlawful association with immediate effect, and accordingly, in exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to sub-section (3) of section 3 of the said Act, the Central Government hereby directs that this notification shall, subject to any order that may be made under section 4 of the said Act, have effect for a period of five years from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.