The Popular Front of India was set up in 2006 as a federation of the National Development Fund (NDF), which was formed in Kerala in 1993.
It subsequently emerged as the Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) in Karnataka.
The PFI calls itself a socio-political movement that strives for the empowerment of the Muslims and other marginalised sections of society.
The front has a political arm, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which was registered with the Election Commission of India on April 13, 2010.
The organisation has been accused earlier of multiple violent and extremist incidents.
Police in Kerala and Karnataka have found evidence of the use of lethal weapons in PFI centres.
From 2010 to 2013, in a series of searches conducted across the group’s premises, the Kerala Police seized country-made bombs, weapons and CDs and several documents containing Taliban and Al-Qaeda propaganda from PFI activists.
25 members of the outfit were arrested for their alleged involvement in propagating riots across U.P. against the amended citizenship law.
