Radical Islamist Org PFI Held Meeting With Turkish Jihadi Outfit IHH In Istanbul: European Research Group

In an alarming development, a European research group has reported that the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Turkish Jihadi outfit IHH had held a meeting in 2018, reports Republic World.

The said meeting was held at IHH's headquarters in the Turkish capital of Istanbul. During the meeting, PFI members Prof P Koya and EM Abdul Rahiman had met with IHH's secretary-general Durmuş Aydın and Vice-President Hüseyin Oruç.

The development gains significance as IHH is allegedly linked to the Turkish State intelligence, while PFI has in the recent times been in the news for its alleged role in inciting riots and civil unrest in India. The IHH is even accused of smuggling arms and ammunition to terror outfit Al Qaeda in Syria in 2014.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s investigation into PFI had also recently revealed that a whopping sum of Rs 120 crore had been deposited in over 73 bank accounts belonging to the outfit from various sources. Further, as many as 90 withdrawals had been made from these accounts in a single day during the protests against the amendments made to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in December last year.

Uttar Pradesh's DGP OP Singh had back in December 2019 gone on to write to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs requesting to ban PFI. Karnataka and Assam are also contemplating a ban on PFI.