CAA helps Kerala-based PFI expand influence

Hyderabad: It has been linked to terror groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Hizbul Mujahideen and even the Al Qaeda and is said to be the off-shoot of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) — something that this organisation has vehemently denied.

Since its inception in 2006, the violent side of this outfit was there for all to see — from the time their members allegedly chopped off the hand of a Kerala professor for insulting Prophet Muhammed to their association with ‘love jihad’ besides various criminal activities, ranging from murders, kidnapping, possession of arms and launching hate campaigns.

The Popular Front of India (PFI) — the Kerala-based radical group, which had been lying low for quite sometime — is now back in the spotlight. Its alleged role in the violence during the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), especially in Uttar Prade-sh, Assam and Manguluru in Karnataka, appears to have infused a new lease of life into the outfit.

Known to be hyperactive on social media platforms, the organisation is understood to have expanded its support base considerably in just the last one month ever since the CAA and NRC rocked the nation. Similarly, the fund flow for the organisation is understood to have gone up just in matter of a few days  — something that has become a cause of concern for security establishment.

Sources tasked with keeping a watch on the PFI and its activities told Deccan Chronicle that though various small and regional Muslim outfits were trying to make their presence felt after the Centre came up with the CAA amid the fears of implementation of NRC looming large, the PFI is said to have taken the lead.