New Delhi — The Hamas-style Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates were declared unlawful activities by the India’s central government on Tuesday, according to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) Tribunal.
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The Tribunal, according to the sources, has rejected the organization’s accusations that the government is specifically targeting one particular community.
A UPA panel presided over by Judge Dinesh Kumar Sharma rendered the decision.
According to attorneys involved in the case, the Tribunal found that PFI members and affiliates were engaging in separatist actions that were detrimental to the nation’s social fabric.
The lawyers claimed that in order to support the ban on the terror group, the Central government had cross-examined and presented 100 witnesses, as well as exhibited two movies on the operations of the group and its members.
The Home Ministry later received the tribunal ruling.
In September of last year, the Union Home Ministry designated the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates as a “Unlawful Association.”
It had stated that PFI and its associates, affiliates, or fronts had been discovered to be involved in serious offences, such as terrorism and its financing, targeted brutal killings, disobeying the country’s constitutional order, upsetting public order, etc., which are harmful to the integrity, security, and sovereignty of the nation.
The Home Ministry claimed that it was important to stop the group’s evil deeds. According to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967, it declared the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its affiliates and fronts, such as the Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CFI), 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, to be a “unlawful association.”
