Kerala hasn't asked to outlaw PFI, confirms CM Pinarayi: 'We don't believe in bans'

Pinarayi Vijayan said that if any communal outfit needs to be banned in India, it should be the RSS.

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Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju had said that Kerala state had asked for a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), a Muslim organisation that largely operates out of Kerala and Karnataka.

According to the minister, the growth and activities of Kerala’s PFI was discussed and presented by Kerala police chief Lokanath Behera at the annual DGP meet held in Madhya Pradesh’s Tekanpur in January.

Rijiju had then said that, “Kerala has pressed for a ban on the PFI and we are examining the case”, reports The Hindu.

However, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has denied that Kerala had made any such recommendation and has called Rijiju’s statement baseless.

“It is not the Kerala government’s policy to ban any communal or terrorist outfit. If any outfit that creates riots in India and divides society on communal lines needs to be banned, then it should be the RSS first. Such organisations cannot be countered with a ban and this has been proved by our experience in the past,” he said.

“This is our stand as far as the PFI goes. The threats that such communal and terrorist organisations pose and their ideology cannot be obliterated through a ban,” the CM added.

The Kerala CM went on to say the only way to counter such organisations was to take strict legal action against them

The Kerala government has taken strict measures against communalism and terrorism and the results are evident in the maintenance of law and order in the state, he claimed.

The CM added that while 104 cases were registered against NDF and PFI between 2005 and 2012, the cases were drastically reduced. Only 14 cases have been registered between 2013 and 17.

Meanwhile Kerala DGP, Lokanath Behra too has released a statement denying that Kerala has proposed a ban on PFI owing to its activities.

“There was a presentation discussion on the topic “Radicalization - PFI, A Case Study” in the DGP’s conference held in January, 2018 at Tekanpur, Madhya Pradesh. This presentation was prepared by a group of DGPs of a few States and was presented by the Kerala DGP. In the presentation there was neither a suggestion nor any recommendation to impose a ban on the Popular Front of India. Kerala Police have not proposed nor written for imposing such a ban on the PFI till date”, read his statement.

The DGP meet is a yearly routine organised by the Intelligence Bureau to discuss issues regarding internal security of the country.

In an incident earlier in, October 2017, Kerala police had arrested three persons - Midhilash Munderi, Razaq and Rashid Munderi (PFI activists) from Kannur for alleged ISIS links. A PFI-SDPI activist Shameer, who was also from Kerala, was killed last year in Syria and the news came out in August 2017. Shajeer Abdulla, an engineering graduate from NIT, was also killed in 2017 in Afghanistan and had left Kerala to join ISIS.

In the last few months, at least nine PFI members have reportedly joined ISIS. As per investigative agencies, around 70-80 Indian ISIS recruits are there in Syria and many of them are from Kerala.