The Centre has imposed a five-year ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and several of its associates for their involvement in terror activities.

PFI's associate organisations which were also declared banned under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA include Rehab India Foundation (RIF), Campus Front of India (CF), All India Imams Council (AIIC), National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (NCHRO), National Women's Front, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.

The action of the Central government came days after a countrywide crackdown on PFI, arrest of over a hundred of its activities and seizure of several dozen properties.

In a late Tuesday night notification, the Union Home Ministry said, "PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been involved in the violent terrorist activities with an intent to create a reign of terror in the country, thereby endangering the security and public order of the state".

"Some of the PFI’s founding members are the leaders of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and PFI has linkages with Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), both of which are proscribed organisations," the ministry said.

It said that the PFI and its associates or affiliates or fronts have been working covertly to increase radicalization of one community by promoting a sense of insecurity in the country, which is substantiated by the fact that the some PFI cadres have joined international terrorist organisations.

The ministry said that there had been a number of instances of international linkages of PFI with global terrorist groups like Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).