India imposes ban on PFI and its affiliates for next five years

• India bans PFI and its affiliates for five years.
• Officials arrested more than 100 PFI members this month.
• Its members have engaged in “terror activities” in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

India declared the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates illegal on Wednesday, accusing them of “terrorist involvement” and banning them for five years after officials arrested more than 100 PFI members this month.

The PFI announced its dissolution and asked its members to cease all operations.

“As law-abiding citizens of our great country, the organization accepts the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” according to a statement from the PFI’s branch in Kerala state, where it has a significant presence.

When its offices were raided and dozens of its members were imprisoned in many states on Tuesday, the PFI refuted allegations of violence and anti-national activity.

In a statement announcing the ban, the home ministry stated that the PFI and its affiliates were “found to be involved in significant offenses, including terrorism and its financing, targeted brutal killings, and violating the constitutional framework.”

Campus Front of India (CFI), the now-banned student section of the PFI, described the government decision as political vendetta and misinformation. It denied the allegations of terrorism involvement.

Muslims make up 13% of India’s population of 1.4 billion, and many have complained of marginalization under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s party refutes charges of prejudice against Muslims and cites data indicating that all Indians, regardless of faith, benefit from the government’s emphasis on economic development and social welfare.

The PFI has supported causes like protests against a 2019 citizenship reform that many Muslims view as discriminatory and protests in the southern state of Karnataka this year demanding the right for Muslim women students to wear the hijab in class.

Opponents of the administration, which retains broad public support and a solid majority in parliament eight years after Modi first became prime minister, are certain to protest the prohibition.

Ruthlessly suppressed

The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which collaborates with the PFI on certain topics but was not included in the ban, stated that the government had dealt a blow to democracy and human rights.

“Freedom of speech, protests and organizations have been ruthlessly suppressed by the regime against the basic principles of the Indian constitution,” the SDPI said in a statement.

This month, some SDPI offices were raided and members were jailed.

The government said in a notification that it has banned PFI and its affiliated organizations CFI, Rehab India Foundation, All India Imams Council, National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation, National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.

The government stated that it discovered a “number of instances of international linkages of PFI with global terrorist groups” and that some of its members had joined Daesh and engaged in “terror activities” in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

The PFI was formed in late 2006 and formally launched the following year with the amalgamation of three south Indian organizations. On its website, it describes itself as a “social movement striving for total empowerment.”