New Delhi/Bengaluru: Following the murder of Deepak Rao, a pro-Hindu organisation volunteer in Dakshina Kannada, the BJP has reiterated its demand to ban Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).

The Karnataka Government, however, has put the onus on the Centre asking the BJP to get the Union Government to ban PFI or any other organisation whose members are accused of disrupting communal harmony.

Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy and Food and Civil Supplies Minister U.T. Khader have said that the ban must be enforced by the Centre and it was of no use if the State Government bans such outfits.

Yesterday, BJP MPs staged a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi Statue inside Parliament complex in New Delhi demanding the murder case be handed over to the CBI. They also demanded an immediate ban on PFI and SDPI. MPs Prahlad Joshi, Shobha Karandlaje, Suresh Angadi, P.C. Mohan, Pratap Simha, Bhagwanth Khuba, Shivakumar Udasi, Prabhakar Kore, Basavaraj Patil Sedam participated in the dharna.

The MPs said that the two outfits were behind the killings of Hindu activists. The State has no control over law and order machinery and the attacks on the workers of the BJP and Sangh Parivar had increased, they said.

These organisations had connections with Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a banned organisation they said and added that the office-bearers of SIMI were now the office-bearers of PFI and SDPI.

The MPs accused Chief Minister Siddharamaiah of strengthening the Congress vote bank at the expense of security by dropping cases against PFI and SDPI activists who were booked for rioting in different parts of the State.

The withdrawal of cases has resulted in a spurt of moral policing and communal activities but the government’s ‘secular policy’ has chosen to ignore the concerns over these organisations, they alleged.