Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah took the tough decision to outlaw the Islamist Popular Front of India and its affiliates this morning, despite the fact that the issue has been up for debate within the national security establishment ever since the 2010 hand chop case involving Kerala college lecturer T J Joseph.
Since the NIA raided 93 PFI locations in 15 states on September 22, followed by nationwide state police raids on the group that was radicalizing Muslim youth toward terrorism, the framework for the ban has been laid. The PFI was the driving force behind the planning of the anti-CAA protests against the Modi government, which resulted in rioting in states including Delhi due to its connections to pan-Islamist organizations and Sunni terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaida, and Pakistan’s Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba. While the Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the PFI primarily received funding from Qatar, Kuwait, and Turkey.
The principals decided to outlaw the group before the PM left for Japan and Amit Shah traveled to Gujarat. Ajit Doval, the NSA who usually travels with the prime minister when he visits other countries, was given the assignment to supervise the legal documentation while the intelligence chiefs provided input. Since the NIA and ED raids on September 22, the documentation has been accompanied by state police operations conducted across the country.
The Indian intelligence agencies diligently collected, compiled, and analyzed facts before outlawing PFI rather than moving quickly. The internal intelligence agency created the necessary dossiers for the NIA and ED to carry out their investigations. The PFI top leadership was completely caught off guard and taken down in one fell swoop during the raids that took place before to the ban. The PFI leadership may have been taken aback by the raid, but they had been anticipating this move by the Modi administration for the previous two months.
