The president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, an Islamic organisation in India founded in 1948, Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi has urged the Indian government to impose an immediate ban on Popular Front Of India (PFI), a radical islamist political organisation founded in 2006. Maulana Barelvi issued a statement on the recent nation-wide raids conducted by Indian security agencies against PFI.
Reports suggest that around 106 PFI members were arrested in multiple raids across 15 Indian states. Code-named “Operation Octopus”, the raids were carried out by the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with 86 platoons of para-military forces, intelligence agencies and the state police. PFI chairman OMS Salam was also arrested in the raid.
Maulana Barelvi pointed out, in a recorded statement that the raids made it clear that PFI was evidently “involved in communal riots in various states across the country.” He further said, “That’s why, I urge all Sunni, Sufi, and Barelvi Muslims to not keep any relation with this organisation.” He also showed his full support to the government of India towards taking strong actions against such organizations to protect the unity and integrity of the country.
It is to be noted that the raids against the radical islamist political organisation, PFI, was done following continued inputs and evidence from various Indian security agencies towards the involvement of PFI leaders and its members in the funding of terrorism and terrorist activities, organising of training camps for providing armed training and radicalising people to join banned organisations.
As per a report by Indian Security agencies, while PFI calls itself a socio-religious organization, but the Islamist group’s larger aim is no different from the Islamic State—to establish an Islamic Caliphate in India. With a cadre of banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) at its core, the PFI has meticulously spread all over India from Kerala with funds from West Asian countries where the Muslim Brotherhood is a dominant force like Qatar, Kuwait, and Turkey.
