Kerala on high alert after PFI ban

Kerala, being a stronghold of the Popular Front of India, is on a high alert with the Centre deciding to ban the outfit.

Police sources said that additional forces were being deployed at the strongholds of the PFI across Kerala. Intelligence agencies are also on a high alert.

Already around 2,000 workers of PFI were held by the police over the last few days in connection with the recent hartal and many were kept in preventive detention.

Read | Kerala: Congress, IUML welcome PFI ban, urge same treatment for RSS

Kerala witnessed widespread violence during a hartal last Friday in protest against the arrest of PFI leaders in a nationwide crackdown. A total of 337 cases were registered and over 1,800 activists were arrested in this connection.

PFI has a strong presence in many pockets across Kerala including the state capital Thiruvananathapuram. Over the last couple of days, the state police were also carrying out raids at shops and commercial establishments run by PFI leaders and activists across Kerala, and have seized many documents and crude weapons.

The Popular Front of India is considered to be a successor of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). After SIMI was banned in 2001, those associated with it formed the National Development Front which later joined hands with similar outfits like Manitha Neethi Pasarai and Karnataka Forum for Dignity.

Track updates on the PFI ban here

Most of the national leaders of the PFI were from Kerala.The state was also the major source of funding, training and manpower supply for the agency. The heinous activities of the organisation came out with the brutal attack on college professor T J Joseph in 2010 at Thodupuzha in Idukki district, and instance of manpower supply to IS.

Even as the mainstream political parties in Kerala opposed a ban on the organisation, the state police and central intelligence agencies had been constantly updating the Centre about the deep-rooted extremist activities of the outfit in Kerala.

A series of murders in Kerala were cited by the Centre for banning the organisation, which also highlights the deep roots of the Islamic fundamentalist outfit in Kerala.