On July 4, 2025, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a key accused, Abdul Rahaman, on his arrival from Qatar at Kannur International Airport in the Kannur District of Kerala, in connection with the murder of BJP youth leader Praveen Nettaru, allegedly orchestrated by the Popular Front of India (PFI) in Karnataka in 2022. Investigations revealed that Abdul Rahaman had, on the directions of the PFI leadership, voluntarily harboured the main assailants and others involved in the case. Rahaman, who carried a reward of INR 400,000, had fled to Qatar after the attackers were arrested.
On June 15, 2025, Kerala Police arrested three operatives of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a political offshoot of PFI, identified as V.C. Mubsheer (28), K.A. Faisal (34), and V.K. Rafnas (24), in connection with the suicide of a woman, Raina, after being publicly humiliated by a group of men in the Pinarayi village of Kannur District in Kerala.
On April 28, 2025, the Karnataka Police arrested PFI ‘district president’ Mausin alias Imtiaz Abdul Shukura Honnavar (35), linked with the 2020 KJ Halli and DJ Halli riots in Bengaluru, from the Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka, after he had evaded capture for over three and half years. Mausin faced multiple charges, including murder, fraud, and involvement in extremist activities. He is also linked to terrorist activities directed from Pakistan.
On April 4, 2025, NIA arrested Shamnad E.K alias Shamnad Illikkal, from the Ernakulum District of Kerala, the main accused in the 2022 PFI-orchestrated murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Palakkad Sreenivasan. The accused had been on the run for the past three years and was carrying a reward of INR 700,000 for his arrest.
On March 20, 2025, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested an accused, Wahidur Rahman Jainullabudeen, in a money laundering case in connection with SDPI, from Mettupalayam in the Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu. ED revealed that he was a physical trainer for PFI and was also “closely associated” with SDPI. The agency disclosed that Rahman was also arrested in 2022 by the Tamil Nadu Police, for hurling petrol bombs in Coimbatore, while protesting against the ban on PFI.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 15 PFI cadres have been arrested in 10 separate incidents in 2025 (Data till July 6, 2025). In 2024, 11 PFI cadres were arrested in 10 incidents, while in 2023, there were 46 arrests in 35 incidents, while 148 cadres were arrested in 10 separate incidents in 2022. A total of 219 PFI cadres have been arrested since the outfit was banned on September 28, 2022 (Data till July 6, 2025).
The Government of India (GoI) had, in September 2022, banned PFI and its associates for five years, under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), for “terrorist links”. Eight PFI-associated fronts – 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, were also banned. A tribunal under UAPA confirmed the five-year ban, citing connections to international terrorist networks and the disruptive activities of the group. The ban was accompanied by nationwide raids and the arrest of over 250 PFI cadres, the freezing of bank accounts, and closure of the group’s offices.
On February 14, 2023, Union Home Minister (UHM), Amit Shah asserted,
We have banned PFI successfully… PFI promoted radicalism and religious bigotry. They were in a way trying to prepare raw materials for terrorism. So many documents have been found which show that their activities were not good for the country’s unity and integrity.
Since the ban, PFI has been the subject of extensive investigation by central agencies, chiefly the NIA and ED, exposing a nexus of radicalisation, terrorist financing, targeted violence, as well as anti-national activities.
Founded in 2006 as a self-proclaimed socio-political movement advocating Muslim rights, PFI gradually drew criticism for provoking communal tensions, promoting ideological radicalism, and engaging in violent acts, such as the 2010 chopping-off of Professor T.J. Joseph’s hand for alleged blasphemy, as well as multiple murders of Hindu activists across Kerala and Karnataka (2016–2021) and for arranging arms training camps in Kerala’s forests. Leaked internal documents, particularly including India Vision 2047, allegedly planning to establish an Islamic state in the country by year 2047, confirming PFI as a structured Islamist radical outfit, rather than a mere social movement. Over 1,300 criminal cases, including links to banned terrorist groups, such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), arms training camps, and alleged hawala funding from Gulf nations, created the groundwork for the group’s eventual proscription and the arrest of hundreds of its operatives.
On July 2, 2025, the NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet in Patna, Bihar, against an active PFI cadre, Sajjad Alam, for his involvement in channelling illegal funds from Dubai to Bihar to promote ‘anti-national activities’. Sajjad had been arrested in January 2025 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, upon his arrival from Dubai. NIA investigations revealed that he played a key role in channelling illegal funds from Dubai to PFI operatives in Bihar, using syndicates based in Karnataka and Kerala to facilitate the transactions.
On June 25, 2025, the NIA apprised a Special Court of the discovery of meticulously compiled “hit lists” allegedly prepared by PFI, targeting as many as 977 individuals across Kerala. These individuals included members of the judiciary, political figures, and civil society activists, reflecting the organisation’s wide-ranging and calculated threat to public order and institutional integrity. The revelations emerged during a hearing on the bail application of two accused – Muhammad Bilal and Riyasudheen – implicated in the high-profile assassination of RSS leader K.S. Sreenivasan in Palakkad District. One of the lists, comprising 240 names, was recovered from Sirajudheen, affiliated with PFI’s “reporters’ wing”. A second list, containing the names of five individuals, including a retired district judge, was found in the possession of accused Abdul Wahab. A third list, with approximately 500 names, surfaced during a search of the residence of absconding accused Ayoob T.A. The NIA emphasised that these documents represented a grave and imminent threat to public safety, spanning multiple sectors of the legal, political, and civil domains.
Further, the NIA and ED uncovered PFI’s sophisticated organisational structure, including ‘service teams’ for targeted killings, ‘arms and physical training units’, and ‘reporter’s wings’ used for surveillance and planning. NIA disclosed that PFI operatives were involved in the murders of several political opponents, notably the killings of RSS leader K.S. Sreenivasan and BJP youth leader Praveen Nettaru. Several courts across India have convicted PFI cadres, with one Kerala court sentencing 15 members to death for political assassination. Intelligence agencies also exposed PFI’s use of properties, such as training centres and schools, to conduct indoctrination and arms training under the guise of physical education.
On June 21, 2025, ED’s financial investigation revealed that PFI had laundered over INR 620 million, using hawala networks, fake charities, and illicit banking transactions, with key operatives mobilising funds from Gulf nations, especially Qatar and the UAE. The investigation reveals that the SDPI-PFI network exploited civil liberties and the democratic framework of India to mask its true objectives, while seeking to recruit and radicalise youth. Proceeds were often invested in real estate, including villas and educational trusts, which the ED later attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Earlier, on October 18, 2024, ED investigations exposed PFI’s overseas network, reportedly including over 13,000 operatives in Singapore and Gulf countries – including Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE – tasked with raising funds, each via structured District Executive Committees. The group channelled foreign donations through fronts including the Indian Fraternity Forum and the Indian Social Forum.
Another ED investigation revealed that more than INR 2.62 billion was deposited into 29 PFI bank accounts between May 2009 and May 2022. The group received an additional 320.7 million in cash from sympathisers. Despite PFI’s claims of not accepting foreign funds, documents seized in a 2020 raid show it had appointed members to oversee foreign operations, with funds routed through hawala, remittances, and circuitous banking channels.
On February 29, 2024, the NIA disclosed that accused office-bearers and cadres of PFI raised INR 90 million from unknown sources between 2011 and 2022, to train its cadres to engage in unlawful activities. More than half of the amount was deposited through cash in small tranches of INR 50,000 each, and there was no audit on these transactions.
Further, digital and social media investigations found that PFI cadres used platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to spread communal hate and incite violence. Official accounts and speeches of PFI leaders frequently called for ‘resistance’ against the state and judiciary.
The ideological influence of transnational jihadist groups, particularly ISIS, on PFI activities has been substantiated through various intelligence assessments. The Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), in the 20th edition of its English-language magazine Voice of Khurasan, titled “The Rise of Far-Right Extremists in Palestine and the Silence Before Storm for the Muslims”, released on February 14, 2023, published a four-page article titled “Crackdown on Popular Front of India: Lessons for Indian Muslims.” The article explicitly urged PFI operatives to align with the global jihadist agenda by joining IS under its symbolic ‘black flag.’ Framing the Indian Government’s actions against PFI as indicative of a broader campaign of “Muslim genocide,” the publication sought to radicalise Indian Muslims by portraying the crackdown as emblematic of systemic oppression. Asking PFI to openly embrace terrorism, it further claimed,
We have seen many PFI supporters join the banner of Tawheeed (Islamic concept of monotheism) in different parts of the world and many have attained Shahada (martyrdom). So don’t be discouraged.
Since the ban on the group, PFI’s operational structures have reportedly attempted to realign themselves under front organizations such as SDPI, and through informal local and digital networks, suggesting that the ideological threat may have merely shifted form rather than been eliminated. While the Government’s ban disrupted the organization’s direct activities and finances, critics argue that such legal action alone cannot dismantle the socio-economic grievances that give rise to radicalization. The PFI saga, thus, reflects both the state’s security challenges and the need for a nuanced, long-term policy mix that combines enforcement with reform and dialogue.
The timeline of actions against PFI between 2022 and 2025 reflects a comprehensive effort by Indian authorities to dismantle an outfit deemed a national security threat. The convergence of ideological extremism, financial crimes, and violent tactics, places PFI at the centre of India’s counter-terrorism focus. While the organisation has sought to position itself as a protector of minority rights, investigations have exposed a radical outfit, with structured plans to subvert democratic institutions, fund terrorism, and destabilise the secular and constitutional fabric of the country.
