The Popular Front of India (PFI), whose role is being carefully investigated in the Udaipur beheading case, is working mainly on multiple forums and their coordination with external and internal organisations have increased in recent years, top intelligence sources have told News18.
Recently, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) conducted raids in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to arrest PFI members trying to create disharmony among Muslim youngsters. Documents recovered after raids in different places suggest relations with PFI and their roadmap.
The PFI cadre, who mainly work in-house, creates roadmap to execute their operations in India, while those who are outsourced work with other organisations across the country.
Sources say the PFI members have funding from Doha, Bahrain, Dubai, Maldives and several other countries. Their money has been routed through bank transfers in the name of family maintenance or Western Union.
According to intelligence, after analysing these transfers, it was found that the funding is being routed every month through different senders but for one purpose.
Top intelligence sources say PFI is instigating international organisations against India, and portraying government policies as “anti-minorities and Muslims”. Moreover, the PFI is encouraging Muslims in UP, Kerala and other places against government and agencies.
After three men were arrested for allegedly beheading a tailor in Udaipur for purportedly propagating support for Nupur Sharma, intelligence analysis suggests that the accused are members of groups, which are involved with the PFI and other organisations spreading radicalism.
“We are also analysing their (PFI’s) outreach to ISIS or whether these elements are involved with them directly or indirectly,” a source told News18.
During the Tripura riots in October-November 2021, the PFI polarised Muslims, instigating them to take up violent means, said sources.
The recent arrests and link of PFI cadre with Ansar Al Islam (AAI) may be seen as a continuation of this strategy.
The PFI trains the cadre to respond violently to anti-Muslim organisations and individuals. Thanks to the PFI’s violent training methods, other terrorist organisations recruit from the cadre base without much difficulty, said the source.
PFI is a fundamentalist Islamist organisation founded in 2006 with the merger of few regional Islamist groups namely National Development Front (NDF), Manitha Neethi Pasarai and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD).
Most prominent office-bearers of the PFI have been previously associated with the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
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