Centre bans PFI for 5 years after a week of nationwide raids

The government has imposed a ban for five years on the Popular Front of India (PFI) for its alleged terror activities.

In a notification issued late Tuesday night, the Union Home Ministry said the central government is of the opinion that the PFI and its affiliates have been involved in subversive activities, thereby disturbing public order and undermining constitutional set up of the country and encouraging and enforcing a terror-based regressive regime.

It continues "propagating anti-national sentiments and radicalising a particular section of society" with the intention to create disaffection against the country, it said.

"And whereas, the central government for the above-mentioned reasons is firmly of the opinion that having regard to the activities of the PFI, it is necessary to declare the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts to be unlawful association with immediate effect," the home ministry notification read.

The government cited the outfit's linkages with Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

PFI has often been accused of promoting radical Islam and recruiting for terror outfits. Three states - Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh - had earlier recommended a ban on the organisation