On 28 September 2022, the Central government banned the Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and eight of its associates for five years under a stringent anti-terror law, accusing them of having links with global terror organisations, including ISIS. However, its political affiliate Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) was the only organisation of the radical Islamist outfit that was not banned by the Central government last year. Therefore, after being declared illegal in September of last year, the Popular Front of India (PFI) made SDPI a backyard of its erstwhile cadres to continue operations in Karnataka.
India Today probed that matter and came to the conclusion that with the Popular Front of India (PFI) banned and its top leaders jailed, the outfit’s political wing the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) is trying hard to re-group its cadres and strengthen the party in Karnataka. The banned outfit has reportedly made SDPI a backyard of its erstwhile cadres to continue operations in the state.
India Today caught SDPI leaders on camera admitting that SDPI has absorbed jihadis from the outlawed outfit PFI.
#OperationPFI | How PFI has seamlessly assimilated into the SDPI. Watch this report by @mdhizbullah.#Karnataka #news #ITVideo #TheBurningQuestion pic.twitter.com/xPIRJ9gVWd
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) April 7, 2023
Chand Pasha, the PFI’s Chikkamagaluru district president for three years prior to the ban, told India Today’s investigative reporter that he is mobilising cadre on the ground and giving video diktats on WhatsApp in order to enforce his will on Muslim voters in the area.
“We are the PFI people. We have our members and cadre and our well-wishers. We hold regular discussions on who should be supported (in the elections). We inquire about winning candidates. We are dead against the BJP. We want to defeat the BJP,” he admitted.
Pasha admitted that the PFI network is still working closely with presidents of local shrines and message groups.
“When we issue a single video on WhatsApp, it’s viewed by thousands of people. We don’t have to meet up with all those members in person,” he explained, adding, “There are 30-50 mosques in this area. Ten to 15 presidents of those mosques have created 10-15 groups each. If we have to raise our point or raise our objections, we issue them on WhatsApp.”
Pasha confirmed that roughly 70% to 80% of the PFI’s membership in the Chikkamagaluru district is still active. He asserted that the cadre of the outlawed Islamist group had shifted to the SDPI.
“Some of the PFI members are in the SDPI. And some of the SDPI members are in the PFI. Everyone isn’t here (in the PFI) because it’s a Muslim-only organisation whereas the SDPI also has Hindus and Dalits.”
Asif, the SDPI’s in charge of the Moodbidri Assembly constituency in Karnataka’s coastal district of Dakshina Kannada, corroborated Pasha’s assertions that the PFI cadre had blended seamlessly into the party.
“Let me tell you off the record that the PFI cadre is now the SDPI cadre,” he told India Today’s reporter.
The PFI cadres, he said, are not identifiable. “They work in the background. Arrests can’t happen. They don’t have evidence. If, for instance, I belong to the PFI, there isn’t any document to establish it. There was no such system for issuing IDs in the PFI.”
Asif also disclosed that the SDPI, with PFI Jihadis on board, receives financial support from the Gulf region.
“We get the maximum support from the Gulf. They (our financiers) would tell us to collect their remittances from the homes (of their contacts) here,” Asif said.
Similarly, Muneeb Bengre, an SDPI corporator in the Mangaluru City Corporation, accepted that PFI Jihadis are now working under his party’s umbrella.
“They have come in. It’s no longer the PFI after the ban. They have come to the SDPI. They are our supporters, our members. They are all working,” he said, adding, “That cadre are not working with PFI identity, but it’s working for our SDPI.”
Bengre claimed that both the organisations were as strong as the RSS because of their combined strength.
In Udupi, India Today spoke to Nazir, another SDPI office bearer, who also acknowledged that the PFI base is as intact as before.
“It’s not shaken. Cadres aren’t something that will go away. Young men who don’t have training shake. But we are fully trained from the beginning,” he said.
When questioned if they were classified as the PFI or the SDPI, Nazir responded the SDPI. According to Nazir, the core of his party was made up of PFI supporters.
“I don’t know if they (the PFI cadre) are attacking leaders (of other right wing groups), but there’s always a fear – the PFI is highly feared,” he bragged.
It may be noted that before the central government had banned PFI, the Kerala High Court had observed that the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) are extremist organisation indulging in serious acts of violence. The Kerala High Court further noted that both SDPI and PFI have a history of attacking members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
