Home Ministry all set to ban PFI after studying possible legal challenges

Days after the NIA and the ED raided several locations linked to the Popular Front of India PFI across the country the Union Home Ministry is planning to ban the extremist group on the basis of the evidences gathered by the investigating agencies sources saidHowever before imposing the ban the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs MHA want to make full preparations so that if the ban is challenged then their side is not weakenedIn the raids conducted in 15 states of the country on September 22 the investigating agencies have found strong evidence of PFIs involvement in terrorist activities based on which it can soon be bannedSoon after the raid Union Home Minister Amit Shah also held a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the NIA Chief In this instructions have been issued to review the facts gathered against PFI and take further actionAccording to sources the MHA is also taking legal advice before banning PFI so that when the party concerned in this matter approaches court the government remains ready with its move This is also being done because the central government had to withdraw the ban on SIMI in 2008 However later it was again banned after the Supreme Court orderAlso Read PFI encouraged youth to join LeT ISIS AlQaeda to establish Islamic rule in India NIAThis time the government donesnt seem to be in a hurry and leave any stone unturned And thats why it is making its case strong besides weighing all the legal asepcts before imposing ban on PFIAccording to the information different agencies were engaged in gathering strong evidence against PFI for many years as instructions were given by the MHA that no link of PFI should be left out While the NIAs investigation was focussed on the illegal activities of the criminal organisation the ED has now been completely successful in tracing the source of their financesA source close to the ED said that during the investigation suspicious transactions of about Rs 60 crore have been detected in the bank accounts of PFI It has also been learnt that money was being sent to PFI through hawala For this bank accounts of labourers working in Gulf countries were used to send money to IndiaOn the other hand apart from gathering evidence against the terror camp run by PFI members the NIA has also collected strong evidences in five different registered cases from making explosives to sending youth to organization like ISISIn 2017 the NIA in its detailed report submitted to the MHA had demanded a ban on PFI for its involvement in terrorist activities Several states have also demanded the ban from time to timeWhile talking to IANS about why there was a delay former Uttar Pradesh DGP Vikram Singh explained many things in detailFormer DGP Vikram Singh said that PFI should have been banned 5 years ago He said Indulging in antinational activities preparing explosives conspiring to assassinate the elected Prime Minister and money laundering of crores of rupees for antinational activities These are the grounds on which PFI can now be banned It takes a long time to gather solid evidence in all these casesOne of the reasons behind the PFI not being banned so far is the political support they get Leaders of some parties even MPs have described PFI as a social service organization Its supporters are present in many states Vikram Singh statedNot only this PFIs ally SDPI has also contested elections in many states This is the reason why so much preparation has to be done to take action against PFI he saidVikram Singh said that according to his information the link of funding of PFI has also been found from Turkeys agency and Pakistans ISI The boys were also tricked and sent to ISIS The ED and NIA made full preparations to connect these links so that strict action could be takenAt present the Jharkhand government has banned PFI At the same time according to the official website of the MHA about 39 organizations have been banned by the government under Section 35 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967These include LashkareTaiba JaisheMohammed HizbulMujahideen Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front United Liberation Front of Assam ULFA National Democratic Front of Bodoland NDFB Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE Students Islamic Movement of India SIMI Al Badr AlQaeda Communist Party of India Maoist Indian Mujahideen Islamic StateISIS as well as UNlisted terrorist organizations are also involved