New Delhi: According to investigating authorities, ‘incriminating documents’ recovered from members of the Popular Front of India, which was today outlawed due to ‘terror links’, included guides for manufacturing bombs. Over 300 persons have been arrested as a consequence of NIA and ED raids on the Islamic organisation, which claimed to educate people about their rights. The Union Home Ministry announced a ban on the PFI and its affiliates this morning.
Soon after, the agencies disclosed information on purported evidence of terrorist activities, including manuals on how to create ‘IEDs,’ or improvised explosive devices, ‘using readily accessible materials’. According to agency authorities, Mohammed Nadeem, a PFI leader from Barabanki in Uttar Pradesh, had one of these documents with him when he was arrested. ‘ Document captioned ‘a brief course on how to build IEDs using easily accessible materials’ was retrieved from Ahmed Beg Nadwi, PFI leader, Khadra, UP,’ they claimed.
According to a note from the agencies, ‘The PFI and its various front organisations had a presence in over 17 states in the country [and] over 1,300 criminal cases had been registered by Police and NIA against cadres of PFI and its front organisations in different states,’ though details and case status were withheld. Another note containing information about ‘hundreds of incriminating materials’ listed ‘brochure and CD related to Mission 2047 (document containing material for turning India into an Islamic State) from the possession of vice president of PFI Maharashtra… pen drives containing videos related to ISIS, Gajwa-e-Hind, etc. from UP PFI leadership’.
The Social Democratic Party of India, a political affiliate of the PFI, referred to the ban as ‘a direct strike on democracy and the rights of people established in the Indian Constitution’. In a statement released yesterday, the PFI described the central government agencies’ searches and arrests as ‘a play ‘and ‘witch hunt’ that were ‘designed to sow dread’. It referred to the NIA, which looks into anti-terror cases, and the ED, which follows illegal money, as ‘two submissive puppets in the hands of the Hindutva dictatorship at the Center’.
In its three decades of existence, the organisation has worked to ‘prevent adolescents from becoming radicalised… and to bring them to the mainstream by imparting patriotism, strong commitment to the Constitution of the country, and respect for democratic ideals,’ it stated. Islamic governance in the nation has never crossed the Popular Front’s minds or agenda. Attacking the ruling BJP’s mentor organisation, the RSS, it said that it was ‘trying to incite discontent and thoughts of vengeance among the Muslim youngsters, and to incite them to wield guns and respond brutally, so that removing them for these crimes would be simple’.
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