A senior leader of the banned Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in Kerala, on Wednesday, September 29, said that the organisation has been disbanded after the Union government banned it and other affiliated organisations for a period of five years. Abdul Sattar, the state general secretary of PFI, was nabbed from Karunagappally in Kollam hours after he posted on the Facebook page of the outfit's Kerala unit that "as law abiding citizens of the country, the organization accepts the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)".
In the post, he also said that all of its members and the public are being informed that "PFI has been disbanded" on account of the outfit being declared as banned by MHA”. Sattar, who was allegedly absconding after calling for a state-wide hartal on September 23 against nation-wide raids on the PFI’s offices and arrests of its leaders, is expected to be handed over to the NIA during the day. During the September 23 hartal, its activists had allegedly engaged in widespread violence resulting in damage to buses and public property. \
Multi-agency teams, spearheaded by the NIA, had last week carried out raids at 93 locations in 15 states across the country and arrested over 100 PFI leaders for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country. The arrests were made by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and police forces of the states concerned.
The Union government on Tuesday, September 27, declared the PFI and its associates as an unlawful organisation with immediate effect, for a period of five years. Along with PFI, eight associate organisations have been declared unlawful associations. These include PFI, Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Org (NCHRO), National Women’s Front, Jr Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.