The Popular Front of India (PFI) has been banned for five years and its key masterminds arrested. However, it is not yet a time for complacency.
Almost a year ago, PFI leaders had expected that their organisation would be banned. They had their assets in the police, intelligence, and other state institutions. Having known the imminent ban, they built a second-rung leadership and the mechanisms for their escape and hibernation in the event of any state action. They kept their identities secret so that they could be asked to lie low and activated with an element of surprise when needed. They also started creating many proxy organisations and cultivating individuals who nurtured unflinching loyalty to their beliefs and goals. They created such entities and individuals across the country, even in remote rural areas and small cities. Such entities and individuals are expected to provide leadership to mass violent communal action whenever needed.
Second, the PFI has bought and penetrated all the madrasas along the India-Nepal border, from Uttarakhand to West Bengal. They are more active in their sabotage plans on the Nepali side of the border. Every 10 km, they have a madrasa. These madrasas are manned by imams who graduated from Jamait ul Fala in Azamgarh and Jamia seminary in Bilariya ganj (Banaras). Allegedly, in these seminaries, the students are taught extremist Salafi teachings constituting the essence of political Islam. Besides, it is also said that many of these imams manning the madrasas on the Nepali side, have a firm belief in the teachings imparted by Muslim Brotherhood.
Several experts suggest that Muslim Brotherhood has strong ties with PFI, and it is making strong inroads in India through PFI and Jamaat-i-Islami Kashmir. On the Indian side also, PFI has cultivated bases in Madrasas and built educational institutions; however, they do not overtly indulge in anti-India activities to not provoke the intelligence and security establishment. It is pertinent to mention that these bases and strongholds on the India-Nepal border can be of great use if they have to coordinate and run a mass communal violent uprising, killings, and terror activities in India.
The porous border can be used to smuggle weapons, drugs, cash, and explosives and infiltrate terrorists and agent provocateurs. In Nepal, PFI’s sister entity is Islami Nepal Sangh, which is engaged in a massive anti-India campaign in Nepal and also in the Madhesi region. Besides, Nepal happened to be an ISI stronghold since the early 1990s. Notably, in the 1990s, terrorists infiltrated India via Nepal after training in Pakistan. The IC-814 hijack was coordinated and orchestrated in Nepal with the active involvement of ISI.
PFI’s capabilities to orchestrate a massive country-wide carnage can also be analysed in the context of its previous role in such orchestrated violence. This author’s interlocutor informed that the entire Nupur Sharma agitation, protests and communal violence that followed it, were pre-planned over a year ago. PFI had realised that to corner and isolate India internationally and to mobilise internationally, their only option was to create a mass movement that was somehow related to the Prophet’s insult. PFI masterminds knew that making an issue about the Prophet’s insult could also rally Barelvi Muslims who have traditionally opposed PFI. Also, PFI knew that even most of the staunch Hindu right-wing leaders would not say anything against Prophets because, in India, it has been a tradition to respect gods and prophets across the religious and political spectrum.
As a result, they planned to incite and provoke the BJP members appearing in TV debates by insulting Hindu gods and goddesses. The readers may recall that before the Nupur Sharma agitation, many Muslim speakers with past affiliations to extremist organizations like PFI were insulting Hindu Gods. Even Nupur Sharma was provoked by the Muslim speaker who insulted Lord Shiva. Also, as per some insider sources, Taslim Rahmani was made to resign from SDPI as a part of the future plan to orchestrate massive communal riots. Later, as can be seen in many TV debates, Taslim Rahmani made derogatory remarks such as “Lord Ram is not a God” and Hindu is not a religion” in various shows.
After Nupur Sharma’s video telecast, for more than a week, nothing happened. PFI was planning the modus operandi, reportedly, with the support of ISI. After the preparations were complete, they ran a Twitter movement titled “Ila rasool ya Modi,” (either Prophet or Modi). Overnight, 6,000 Twitter handles were created to abuse India and the Modi government. Notably, these handles were created in Pakistan, but the PFI ran the movement through VPNs. The PFI wanted to keep Pakistan out as it would not have generated a strong narrative.
The global audience would have seen it as a part of the India-Pakistan information war. So, PFI started the anti-India campaign from the Gulf countries, firstly to give credibility to their anti-India campaign by projecting it as a purely Islamic movement (with no Pakistan angle) to protect the civil rights of Muslims, secondly, to rally the support of the global Ummah and thirdly to damage India’s cordial relations with the West Asian countries. PFI chose Qatar, a great friend of anti-India Turkey, Islamist lobby, and Pakistan, as a fountainhead of the anti-Nupur Sharma movement. Turkey’s ties and sympathies with Islamist terrorist organisations are well-known. During the campaign, PFI orchestrated riots in Barelwi strongholds such as Kanpur and Allahabad (now Prayagraj) so that it got the support of Barelwis by rallying them in the name of the Prophet’s honour. More recently, PFI also spread rumours of Barelwis institutions like Raza Academy being banned by the government.
With the anti-Nupur Sharma protests, PFI strengthened the global Islamist campaign against India, portraying the existing government as responsible for the genocide of Muslims. The campaign is still active in the West. More recently, as per my informed interlocutor, PFI and its lackeys are inciting caste-based fault lines in India. They are projecting that a large number of Dalits are converting to Buddhism because they are facing severe caste discrimination in the Modi regime. Hence, it is highly likely that PFI will continue to be the agent of subversion. The Indian agencies do not have time to be relaxed and complacent. Instead, they must enhance their surveillance, intelligence, and operational capabilities.
The author is a Cornell University graduate in public affairs, bachelors from St Stephen’s College, Delhi and has done his PhD on Jaish-e-Mohammad. He is a policy analyst specialising in counterterrorism, Indian foreign policy and Afghanistan-Pakistan geopolitics. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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