Following raids on the PFI-SDPI leadership and establishment by the NIA, ED, and police from 13 states, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is meeting with the relevant enforcement and security chiefs to review the evidence gathered and decide on the next course of action. Ajit Doval, the national security advisor, is also present at the meeting.
The raids on PFI-SDPI were carried out after the Intelligence Bureau conducted extensive investigations and data collection in collaboration with the NIA and ED. All state police involved have been working through the night, and the government will make a firm decision on the status of PFI, which claims to be a socio-religious organisation. It is worth noting that the killers involved in the beheadings of innocent people in Udaipur and Amravati had ties to the PFI.
There have been dozens of arrests across the country, with Kerala having the most (22) followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka (20 each), Andhra Pradesh (5), Assam (9), Delhi (3), Madhya Pradesh (4), Puducherry (3), Tamil Nadu (10), Uttar Pradesh (8), and Rajasthan (2).
Persons involved in terror funding, organising training camps, and radicalising people to join proscribed organisations are being searched.
Since intelligence reports indicated that the radical Islamist organisation was being illegally funded by West Asian countries, particularly Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, the home ministry has focused on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political wing, the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The funds were used not only for terror activities across the country, but also for radicalising young people. The organisation had ties to a pan-Islamist organisation such as the Muslim Brotherhood and intended to be the face of Islam in India.
The PFI-core SDPI’s leadership is largely drawn from the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), whose primary goal was to establish an Islamic Caliphate in India. Despite being an ultra-conservative Sunni organisation, PFI positioned itself as the voice of all Muslims in India, including Sufis, Barelvis, and Deobandis.