Amidst the ongoing anti-CAA violence in the country, some more shocking revelations have come out which clearly point out what has been described as “peaceful protests” is actually systematic violence unleased by radical, terror organisations in order to take the country by ransom.
As per reports, the Lucknow Police has arrested three members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and has also claimed that the organisation was behind the violence that gripped Lucknow last week.
Lucknow Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Kalanidhi Naithani has said that PFI members held several meetings across the city. The police has also claimed to have damning evidence of such meetings in the form of electronic surveillance and eyewitness accounts. He also said, “The PFI also distributed pamphlets, placards and other offensive material on the Citizenship Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC) to people in various colonies and also on the social media.” Apart from this, he also said that PFI activists had carried out mass mobilisation in the city along with other outfits including the Rihai Manch.
This development has therefore added another incident in the chain of nationwide violence perpetrated by the PFI in the name of protests against the CAA. Even after violence in Delhi, there were intelligence reports from agencies under Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) revealing involvement of Islamic fundamentalist organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI) and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). An MHA official had said, “Some political parties (names withheld considering the gravity of the case) ignited the violent acts at various places, letting opportunities to sleeper cells of extremist and militant Islamic fundamentalist organisations – Popular Front of India (PFI) and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).” It had also been revealed that such organisations are aiming to disrupt law and order situation in the country.
The arrests of two members of the Assam unit of Kerala based PFI shows the level of elaborate planning and conspiracy behind the ongoing violence, and the role that the Kerala based Islamist organisation has played in fomenting violence across the country. Therefore, there are clear reports of the PFI fomenting violence against the CAA across the country from Assam to Delhi and now even in Lucknow. There have also been clear instances of well planned violence bordering on terrorism in Karnataka’s Mangaluru. Therefore, the PFI has been perpetrating violence in every possible part of India over the Amendment legislation.
December 19, Mangaluru: pic.twitter.com/d4wAM9o2C0
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) December 24, 2019
This is not the first time that Kerala based PFI has come under the scanner for perpetrating violence. It bears deep links with terror organisations. It is affiliated with the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a banned terror organisation. There have also been reports about PFI activists joining the ISIS, and a Times Now investigation had suggested that some of the organisations funding radical Islamist, PFI, have also been linked to the global terrorist organization, the Al-Qaeda. PFI’s links with global terror organisations and the manner in which damning evidence against the Islamist organisation has revealed its involvement in anti-CAA violence across the country, give a clear reason for outlawing it. PFI is acting like a terror outfit and should be declared as such.
While PFI ought to have been declared a banned terror organisation by now, it has unfortunately enjoyed political patronage. The CPI(M) government in Kerala has been accused of allowing the PFI to foster in the state by closing its eyes towards the activities of the Islamist organisation. What further corrboates how the PFI has thrived in political patronage is the fact that even the former Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari had attended an event in Kozhikode, Kerala, which was co-organised by the National Women’s Front (NWF), the women’s wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI). It is on account of such State inaction and even encouragement that the PFI has grown into an influential Islamic organisation. By perpetrating violence across the country, the organisation has not only incited radical Islamic sentiment, but has also tried to show its brute strength and take the country by ransom. Modi government must take cognisance of its proactive role in fomenting violence and ban it as terror organisation with immediate effect.
