Who are PFI people getting targeted by the NIA & ED?

PFI raids by the National Investigation Agency are the headlines today with hundreds of arrest across India. And this action has invited people’s attention towards the outfit.

Thirteen Indian states including Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,  Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry and Delhi are having the investigation on with the subsequent arrests . The arrests are being carried out in connection with anti-terror activities.

Now people want to know who the PFI people are, why the premises linked to them are being searched by the NIA. It was the year 2007 when the PFI was created through the merger of three Southern Muslim organisations. The three outfits included Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu, National Democratic Front in Kerala and the Karnataka Forum for Dignity.

The emergence of the PFI is significant due to its arrival in the aftermath of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The PFI initially projected it as a supporter outfit for the rights of minorities, marginalised communities along with Dalits. Strangely, the outfit does not maintain records of its members which will make it difficult for the law enforcement agencies to pin crimes on the arrested people belonging to the organisation.

Today when the NIA and ED has raided in thirteen states across India the PFI’s alleged links with several left-wing extremists have come to the fore other than its suspected terror-funding activities which compelled the national agencies to opt for the crackdown on the fundamentalist outfit.