A screenshot of a now-deleted tweet from Pakistan’s Canadian embassy in response to a tweet by the Popular Front of India is doing the rounds on social media. According to reports, a verified person at the Consulate General of Pakistan in Vancouver responded to the now-banned PFI’s tweet and tagged UN Human Rights, Pakistan’s foreign authorities in a possible attempt to spread the PFI’s tweet. In a tweet, PFI called for support in Tuesday’s second round of crackdowns.
“Massive arrests in BJP ruled states in the name of preventive detention. This is nothing but the prevention of the right to democratic protests against the PFI witch hunt by the central government is quite natural and expected in this autocratic system,” the tweet read. The viral screenshot shows the Pakistan Consulate General Vancouver clique as it has labeled the international cliques in response.
A day later, PFI and eight other organizations were banned in India on terrorism charges. Popular Front of India Twitter handle has been deactivated. Therefore, the tweet and the reply to it cannot now be found online. The Ministry of Home Affairs said that the PFI has clear links to terror and some of its leaders have been associated with SIMI and Jamat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh. Although the PFI and its affiliates had a leading socio-economic, educational and political organization, they had a secret agenda to radicalize a section of the society, the MHA said.
The ban came after a massive crackdown on the PFI in the last few days when central agencies discovered several documents in which the organization taught its cadres how to make IEDs. The organization has also prepared an anti-India documentary ‘Mission 2047’ containing Islamic State videos. According to the dossier compiled by the investigating agencies, the PFI aimed to have “uniformized cadre training in martial arts and defensive/offensive tactics and create ‘Action Squads’ to ‘take revenge’ on the ‘enemy’.
