UP government writes to Home Ministry, seeks ban on PFI for fanning anti-CAA protests

Old image of anti-CAA protests in UP

LUCKNOW: The Yogi Aditynath government in Uttar Pradesh has written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) seeking a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), an organisation that is said to have played a key role in triggering violence during the recent anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the state. 

Sources on Wednesday said that the MHA has received the UP government's proposal calling for a ban on PFI and is likely to take legal opinion before imposing a ban on the organisation. The MHA is also likely to take inputs from intelligence and central government agencies, including NIA, before reviewing the past activities of PFI.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) OP Singh had earlier sent a letter to the state's Home Department seeking a ban on the PFI. The proposal has now been forwarded to the MHA for necessary action, the sources claimed.

''A number of SIMI activists are now in the PFI and have been instigating violence in the state. Nearly 22 of their members have been arrested during recent protests. The PFI is active in seven states including Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Asam, West Bengal, Keala, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh,'' the state's DGP said in his report. 

State's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya had on Tuesday told reporters that the state government was strongly in favour of banning the PFI. It is said to be a 'recycled' organisation of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which was designated as a terrorist organisation and banned in 2001.

Maurya said that the PFI had fanned protests against the against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in the state. "Disguised as Students` Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the Popular Front of India (PFI) fanned protests in the state. Pursuant to the probe, the truth has come to the fore,'' Maurya told reporters.

Any anti-national in the state and country would not be tolerated, the deputy chief minister said, while warning that if SIMI comes out in a different form, it will be crushed.

The PFI, which was founded on November 22, 2006, is based in Delhi. The protests which affected the state earlier this month saw people expressing their dissent against the CAA and seeking its withdrawal. Various police personnel and protesters clashed during the agitation. The state government also imposed prohibitory orders to avert any untoward incident.

Following the widespread protests, the Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested three members of PFI including its state president Waseem Ahmad.