The Government of India on September 28, 2022, declared the Islamist organization Popular Front of India (PFI) and its front organizations, including its student wing Campus Front of India (CFI), as an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). PFI has been banned for five years along with its other eight front organizations, which include the CFI, Rehab India Foundation(RIF), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organization (NCHRO), National Women’s Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.

The notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs stated:

There had been a number of instances of international linkages of PFI with Global Terrorist Groups and some activists of the PFI have joined Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and participated in terror activities in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of these PFI cadres linked to ISIS have been killed in these conflict theaters and some have been arrested by State Police and Central Agencies and also the PFI has linkages with Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a proscribed terrorist organization.

The notification further added:

The Office bearers and cadres of the PFI along with others are conspiring and raising funds from within India and abroad through the banking channels, and the hawala, donations, etc. as part of a well-crafted criminal conspiracy, and then transferring, layering and integrating these funds through multiple accounts to project them as legitimate and eventually using these funds to carry out various criminal, unlawful and terrorist activities in India.

“The PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been involved in the violent terrorist activities with an intent to create a reign of terror in the country, thereby endangering the security and public order of the state, and the anti-national activities of PFI disrespect and disregard the constitutional authority and sovereignty of the state and hence an immediate and prompt action is required against the organisation”, the notification read further.

Earlier on September 22, over 100 Muslim leaders of the PFI were arrested across India in the raid organized by the joint team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Enforcement Directorate (ED), and state police forces across 10 states. As per reports, the raids were conducted at the premises of the PFI leaders who are “involved in terror funding, organizing training camps, and ‘radicalizing’ people to join proscribed organizations”. The raids were conducted in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and many other states.

On September 27 Assam police arrested more than twenty-five Muslims of the PFI, which included the northeast regional secretary of PFI Aminul Hoque, the organization’s Assam unit president Abu Sama Ahmed, Assam state unit general secretary Robiul Hussain, district unit presidents of PFI’s Nagaon and Barpeta units Rafiqul Islam, and Mufti Rahmatullah, respectively.