15 states. 93 locations. 300 officials. 106 arrests. As the dust settles on the multi-agency raids led by the National Investigation Agency against the Popular Front of India, the big question that has emerged is – how soon will be the PFI be banned? Sources told News18 that the road to a complete ban won’t be too short.
Sources said the NIA would first interrogate 45 of the top PFI leaders under arrest and has a plan to reach the district-level and hyper-local leaders who were in touch with senior functionaries. A senior official, who is part of the operation, told News18 that the government will seek a legal opinion to ban the PFI after breaking all its modules, collecting evidences and gathering witnesses.
The NIA has not seized any arms, ammunition or cash in Thursday’s raids, nor has a case been registered against the radical Islamic outfit. The cases, which allege support to terror activities in the country, have instead been registered against the arrested leaders and cadre of the PFI.
The government, sources said, is in no hurry to ban the PFI without concrete and direct evidences that hold up in court. The NIA, for now, will focus on seizures and ground-level network, while the ED picks up the funding trail.
The Enforcement Directorate has been tasked with investigating PFI’s funding. Sources said central agencies have already established that cadre and leaders of the PFI were getting illegal funding and were involved in promoting banned organisations in India.
During a meeting in which Union Home Minister Amit Shah was briefed on the extensive raids, the NIA top brass also discussed the next line of action.
Sources told News18 that the next step of the investigating agencies would be to map the network of PFI leaders down to the grassroots level and unearth the funding route. Once all their sympathisers are in custody, there will not be any law and order problems if the outfit is banned.
The approach is similar to the one adopted to dismantle the local terrorism network in Jammu and Kashmir. While the forces were busy eliminating commanders of various terror outfits, the agencies arrested hundreds of ground-level workers.
“It’s an initial step, but nonetheless a big one, which will lead towards a complete ban. But a lot has to be done. Banning an organisation requires legal support and evidences against the organisation, cadre and leaders. Investigations of these cases will help agencies reach lower level cadre who actually mobilise people," a senior government official told News18.
While the raids were underway on Thursday, protests by local level cadre were witnessed in Karnataka’s Belagavi and Mangaluru. The outfit is also holding a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Kerala on Friday, during which incidents of stone-pelting have been reported.
Officials told News18 that few local leaders who were in touch with the senior leadership of the PFI have been tasked with disturbing the law and order situation.
“PFI leaders run the organisation through local-level leaders, who act like the backbone of the organisation. To unearth the role of these cadre would be the next level of investigation. Also, intelligence agencies will keep an eye on activities of cadre who may face arrest soon," the senior official quoted earlier said.
Thursday’s raids by the NIA, ED and state police forces were spread across 93 locations in 15 states — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Manipur.
Maharashtra and Karnataka accounted for 20 arrests each. Arrests were also made in Tamil Nadu (10), Assam (9), Uttar Pradesh (8), Andhra Pradesh (5), Madhya Pradesh (4), Puducherry and Delhi (3 each) and Rajasthan (2).
Around 300 NIA officers and staffers, including almost all of its SPs who account for 20% of the agency’s strength, were involved in the nationwide crackdown, billed as the “largest-ever investigation process till date".
“These searches were conducted at the houses and offices of the top PFI leaders and members in connection with five cases registered following continued inputs and evidence that the PFI leaders and cadres were involved in the funding of terrorism and terrorist activities, organising training camps for providing armed training and radicalising people to join banned organisations," the NIA said in a statement.
Officials said criminal and violent acts allegedly carried out by the PFI over a period of time — such as the chopping off the hand of a college professor in Kerala in 2010, cold-blooded killings of people linked with organisations espousing other faiths, collection of explosives to target prominent people and places, support to Islamic State and destruction of public property — have had a demonstrative effect of striking terror in the minds of the citizens.
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