What led to ban: Radicalising youths, killing Hindu activists

The PFI first came under the radar following the involvement of its cadres in chopping a Kerala college professor's palm in 2010 over alleged blasphemy. 

- Bharti Jain

But what really may have sealed the case for a ban on the outfit is the purported role played by its leaders and cadres in the subsequent years in engineering communal tension through targeted killings of Hindu activists by its terror-trained set of volunteers called "service teams"; mobilizing Muslims for violent protests against CAA and NRC; radicalizing youth to join global terror organizations like Islamic State and receipt of funds from foreign sources through dubious route.

Explaining the genesis of PFI, a central government officer told TOI that PFI parent outfit National Development Front (NDF) was formed in 1993 in Kerala as a "resistance group" to counter the challenge from "Sangh Parivaar". Many top PFI leaders - E Abubacker, E M Abdur Rahiman, and P Koya, all now under arrest - were associated with SIMI before it was banned in 2001.