Crush the forces of religious fanaticism

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) picked up more than 100 suspected activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country and for the hate campaign against Hindus. The NIA raids became necessary not just because of the attacks on Hindus but also because of the terror camps organised by the PFI activists across the country. In fact, the PFI has been under the scanner for a long time in the country for disturbances and attacks on Hindus on one pretext or the other. Several state governments too have been pointing to the role of the PFI.

The Islamist organisation is seeking to consolidate the Muslim and dalits in the country on the alibi of denial of social justice and equal rights to these sections. However, its activities go beyond seeking justice to the deprived and its meetings have amply proved that the agenda-driven organization has different goals altogether. The present raids have been taken up following the murder of a BJP worker Praveen Nettaru in Dakshina Kannada district's Bellare village on July 26. It is not just in Karnataka that the PFI has been active. It is found to be having links in Kerala with the Islmaic State forces too.

An NIA court recently sentenced three PFI activists as they were found to be recruiting volunteers for the Islamic State. Two of the convicted had been arrested in Turkey and deported to India when they attempted to get into Syria illegally to join the IS. The two arrested thus were found to be members of the Kannur module of the IS. There has been considerable recruitment from the Valapattanam region into IS. In fact, PFI had been dubbed by the previous Congress government of Kerala as SIMI's newer form once it had been banned. In addition, police have noticed the training sessions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States too in recent times.

'Sar Tan Se Juda' sloganeering has been attributed to the PFI modules which do not mind even using children by poisoning their minds against the Hindus and the national unity. The role of the PFI was found in the Anti-CAA protests of 2020 in the country. A money trail has also been found to link the PFI with the protests against the proposed National Register of Citizens. The attacks during Ram Navami processions in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh also made police and intelligence agencies take note of the PFI hand.

The PFI is neither working to socially empower the Muslims and deprived sections of the society, nor is it a political organisation. In fact, it has a political front SDPI. There are concerted efforts to attack India on religious charges throughout the world. The attacks on temples and Hindu symbols in the UK only reflect the Hinduphobia that prevails in the world today and also the support it has from a strong western media. The narratives being spread in the UK were entirely against the Hindus whereas the attacks were engineered by a section of Muslims, mostly from Pakistan and other countries. The Hindus and the Muslims from India went ahead and issued a joint statement condemning the attacks, seeking a thorough probe.