The official Twitter account of Popular Front of India (PFI) has been taken down in a major digital crackdown on Thursday.
Twitter India also took down the accounts of PFI chairman, OMA Salam and general secretary, Anis Ahmed, who were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) during the raids.
Following the ban of PFI and its eight affiliations under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Centre ordered the blocking of their websites and social media accounts.
After a week of raids and arrests, the government of India invoked Section 3 of the UAPA’s Section 3, to ban the contentious PFI. This makes the organisation a “terrorist organisation”.
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In a notification issued late Tuesday night, the Union Home Ministry said the central government believes that the PFI and its affiliates have been involved in subversive activities, thereby disturbing public order and undermining the constitutional set up of the country, and encouraging and enforcing a terror-based regressive regime.
More than 150 people allegedly linked with PFI were detained or arrested in raids across seven states on Tuesday, five days after a similar pan-India crackdown against the 16-year-old group had led to the arrest of over a hundred of its activities and seizure of several dozen properties.
Alongside PFI, its associate organisations - 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.
