Saturday, November 23, 2024
Home Blog Page 5403

Tulsi Gabbard punctures fake news spread by ‘journalist’ Rana Ayyub and others about Howdy Modi event

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Tulsi Gabbard punctures fake news spread by ‘journalist’ Rana Ayyub and others about Howdy Modi event

The moment the Indian ‘liberals’ read about anyone having a negative opinion about Prime Minister Modi, they get giddy with excitement. Doubly so if the person ‘saying’ so is a Hindu and is ‘against Hindutva’.

Few days back, a shady website, ofmi.org run by one ‘Organisation for Minorities in India’, which doesn’t have much details on its website, published an article citing an ‘anonymous source within Tulsi Gabbard’s 2020 presidential campaign” that Gabbard “refused” an invitation to the ‘Howdy, Modi’ event. It claimed claimed that Gabbard had dropped out of ‘Howdy, Modi’ event after Congressman Ro Khanna’s call to ‘reject Hindutva’.

This, of course got the usual suspects extremely excited. A US Presidential candidate who is a Hindu is ‘rejecting’ PM Modi. Why to verify if it fits the narrative, right?

This article with no confirmed reports, was widely circulated by the usual anti-Modi brigade. Maharashtra Congress Sevadal and other Congress supporters too shared the link.


Filmmaker Vinod Kapri also shared the link asking Gabbard if it is true. Kapri was accused by his former colleague of cooking up ‘adoption of an infant abandoned in garbage’ story on Twitter for publicity stunt for his film. He later denied the allegations.


This spreading fake news by posing a question as if you are verifying it, is in line with various Aam Aadmi Party leaders including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who frequently indulges in spreading fake news by appending a question, “is this true?”

“Journalist” associated with AFP’s fact-check, too, shared the link, clearly, without verifying.


Abusive troll, Ashok Swain who was caught celebrating former ministers Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley‘s death, also indulged in spreading the fake news.


Our very own ‘journalist’ whose fiction “Gujarat Files” which she peddled as investigative journalism in Sohrabuddin encounter case, was trashed by Supreme Court saying that it is likely to be politically motivated, was also at the forefront of spreading this lie.

Tulsi Gabbard replying to fake news purveyor masquerading as journalist Rana Ayyub

By the time of this report, Ayyub’s tweet has had over 1,000 retweets and 3,500 likes. Gabbard, however, has now replied and rubbished the report saying that it is a misinformed report. “I’m not attending the Houston event due to previously scheduled presidential campaign events. However I’m hoping to meet PM Modi on his visit to discuss the importance of maintaining the strong partnership of the world’s oldest & largest democracies,” she tweeted to Ayyub.

‘Howdy, Modi!’, a mega event which will be held in Houston, Texas on 22nd September, will also be attended by United States President Donald Trump. Over 50,000 people are expected to attend the event.

The Howdy event will be the largest ever event addressed by an Indian Prime Minister in North America and also the largest for a foreign leader in the US other than Pope Francis. The Howdy event will be Prime Minister Modi’s third major address to the Indian-American community after he became PM in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May. The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016. Both the events were attended by more than 20,000 people.

Kidnapping of a minor Hindu girl in a village near Agra triggers violence, shops torched

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Kidnapping of a minor Hindu girl in a village near Agra triggers violence, shops torched

Another incident of kidnapping of an underage girl has come to light in Uttar Pradesh’s Saimara village in Khandauli area near Agra yesterday. As per reports, a young man named Abid and his two friends Danish and Kaish had abducted a 15-year-old girl yesterday.

Reports say that a 15-year-old girl, a class 9 student, was kidnapped yesterday at around noon. The girl’s parents live in Eta while she was staying at her maternal uncle’s house for studies. The girl’s uncle received a phone call from a youth named Abid in the afternoon. Abid reportedly threatened the uncle that his niece has been abducted by him and warned him against reporting the matter to the police.

Following the phone call, the girl’s uncle reportedly went to the police station to lodge a complaint. Danish and Kaish, two of Abid’s friends who were seen suspiciously roaming around the girl’s house since the last few days, were also suspected to have been involved. Reports say that the police did not file a written complaint and sent the girl’s family back.

As the news of the kidnapping spread, unrest was triggered in the area that has, as per reports, seen such incidents of kidnapping earlier too. A group of villagers went to confront the main accused Abid’s family where they threatened the family and allegedly burned the house. As the unrest spread, it suddenly turned violent in the evening.

About 15 shops in a street were torched by a mob late in the evening. In retaliation, the people from the opposite side also attacked the houses and families of the former community.

Media reports have stated that while shops were being torched, a few policemen, who had come in a UP-100 vehicle and were trying to get reinforcement, stood helpless. Later in the evening, extra forces arrived and the situation was brought under control. Several shops have reportedly been damaged with fire causing even a cylinder blast in a repair shop.

Agra range IG A Satish Ganesh and many senior officers arrived at the spot later to bring the situation under control. Keeping the tense situation in mind, extra forces from several local police stations have been deployed in the area.

A report in Amar Ujala stated that the girl was recovered late in the night when the main accused Abid was trying to escape to Delhi with her. The main accused Abid is also a student in a nearby college.

Italy: Man screaming “Allahu Akbar” stabs soldier, investigation has been launched to determine if attack was terror-related

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Italy: Man screaming “Allahu Akbar” stabs soldier, investigation has been launched to determine if attack was terror-related

An Italian soldier was stabbed in the throat with a pair of scissors on Tuesday by an attacker in front of Milan’s central train station and later shouted “Allahu Akbar”, reports NYPost.

According to the reports, a man identified as Mahamad Fathe, 23, fled after he attacked the Italian soldier near in Piazza Duca d’Aosta without any provocation. However, he was stopped by paramilitary Carabinieri police officers.

He shouted “Allahu Akbar!”, which meant “God is great!” as he was being arrested. The 34-year-old soldier was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, stated the report.

Interestingly, an investigation was launched to determine if the attack was terrorism-related. It seems that Italian authorities are still in a state of denial to admit that this barbaric incident is a classic case of Islamic terrorism being inflicted on non-believer societies.

The Western countries, especially the media and intelligentsia have been somewhat reluctant to accept the menace of Islamic terror that is being perpetrated on their societies. So much that recently, in one of the worst case of Islamic terrorism denial, the News York Times had blamed aeroplanes for the 9/11 terror attacks in one of the reports on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the terror attacks.

It is no secret that the Islamic terror groups are now resorting to such ‘Lone wolf’ attacks in western societies, which they refer to as a ‘far-enemy’. The ‘Lone-wolf’ attacks have become the new modus operandi of the Islamic terrorists to inflame fear and devastate communities.

There has been an increase in such ‘Lone-wolf’ attacks across societies, especially in the West. Recently, in one such attack, an attacker had stabbed two people, killing one, in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. The attacker was seen shouting “Allahu Akbar” while he was attempting to attack people with a butcher knife. However, the Australian police did not treat it as a terror attack.

Last year in November, an attacker shouting “Allahu akbar” had stabbed a Belgian policeman several times in the neck in central Brussels. The attacker, who wielded two kitchen knives during the incident outside the city’s main police station, was then shot and wounded by two police officers. The attack, too, was not a ‘terror attack’ as per initial reports.

Twitter account of Kolkata girl hacked hours after PM Modi followed her among others

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Twitter account of Kolkata girl hacked hours after PM Modi followed her among others

Twitter users woke up this morning to a bunch of ‘leaked’ screenshots posted by a Kolkata-based Twitter user, @seemantinibose. In a now deleted tweet, Bose had accused a few Twitter users of inappropriate behaviour.

Seemantini’s tweet, now deleted.

Soon, Twitter user @pokershash tweeted that Seemantini’s account is compromised by Pakistani hackers.


Seemantini’s tweet asking Prime Minister’s Office to take action against other Twitter users. (now deleted)

OpIndia got in touch with a visibly anxious and traumatised Seemantini who believes that her account was perhaps targetted by Pakistani hackers in a bid to embarrass Prime Minister Modi who had followed her last evening along with various other supporters. “I was browsing my timeline at around 2 AM when suddenly I started receiving OTP (one-time password). I tweeted but that tweet was deleted by the person who had taken over my account. Suddenly my account vanished from the phone,” she said. After 6 hours of ordeal, her Twitter account was finally restored some minutes back.

“Now that the Prime Minister followed me, I don’t want to put him in an embarrassing situation. I don’t want to let him down,” she says. The hacker had sent across direct messages to Prime Minister Modi and a lot of her other friends in a bid to shame her.

DM sent from Seemantini’s compromised account to PM Modi

Essentially, the Pakistani hacker was taking out his frustration over abrogation of Article 370, while trying to defame PM Modi’s supporters.

DM sent to Seemantini’s compromised account to a friend. (picture and name blanked out to protect privacy)

Bose suspects that her account was compromised to embarrass PM Modi along with the Twitter user pokershash who has been mocking Pakistani leaders on twitter since quite a few weeks now. He had recently fooled Pakistani minister Ch Fawad Hussain on Twitter by pretending to be a Pakistani with insider information on undercover RAW agent in Pakistan. After that he had tricked Fawad Hussain into believing that India had threatened Sri Lankan players that they will be ousted from Indian Premier League (IPL) if they don’t cancel their Pakistan tour.

Embarrassed that Indians got their goat (figuratively, not literally) for having Ch Fawad Hussain as a minister, Pakistani hackers hacked into Bose’s account to embarrass PM Modi and Twitter user @pokershash.

Reacting to the accusations of ‘harassment’ levelled by the hacker of Bose’s account, @pokershash said that Pakistani minister has now turned into a full-time troll. “Since government removed Article 370, Pakistani politicians started spreading fake news on Kashmir using old and unrelated videos. So we decided to send them more fake videos, mostly bollywood, in DM. From Pakistan’s Rail minister to science & technology minister, every minister is being trolled by us. Minister Fawad Chaudhury was our favourite punching bag. Indians are trolling him on Twitter and even on WhatsApp now. Fawad in his frustration started posting fake chat of Narendra Modi. Now they are using hackers to hack accounts of people recently followed by PM Modi and posting irrelevant chat to target Modi supporters.”

With this, Pakistan has again taken the Indian ‘liberal’ line who regularly peddle the narrative that PM Modi follows abusive people. Ever since PM Modi has come to power at the Centre back in 2014, the mainly leftist establishments have envisioned a brand new angle to target him. Under that angle, a leftist propaganda blog and an alleged fact-checking website attacked the PM for following individuals on Twitter who as per them hurled abuses, spread misinformation online.

This predictably gained a fair amount of traction in certain sections of social media and even the mainstream media. Incidentally, while this episode was playing out, the spotlight barely focused on similar faults of other political parties and their leaders.

Amusingly, even though former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal also follow abusive trolls, the leftist establishment have their guns trained only on PM Modi.

Irony hit a new low when abusive troll masquerading as a journalist started ‘shaming’ those who are followed by the PM.


So much that she even wrote an entire book on trolls and surprisingly didn’t name herself as one.


That Pakistanis are now toeing the ‘liberal’ line in a bid to embarrass PM Modi is not surprising. They have done it before. And quite likely that they will do it again.

Delhi court sends Congress leader DK Shivkumar in judicial custody till October 1, to be shifted to Tihar once medical condition improves

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Delhi court sends Congress leader DK Shivkumar in judicial custody till October 1, to be shifted to Tihar once medical condition improves

Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has sent Congress leader and former Karnataka energy minister, DK Shivkumar to 14-day judicial custody until October 1. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on September 3 in a money laundering case.

However, owing to his serious health condition, the special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar directed the ED to take Shivakumar to the hospital first and only after his medical condition is found to be stable could he be sent to Tihar Jail, which is also the current home of the Congress era finance minister P Chidambaram.

“It is directed that the accused be first taken to the hospital and only after his medical condition is opined to be stable, he is sent to judicial custody in Central Jail, Tihar. The accused is remanded to judicial custody till October 1,” the judge said in the order.

The court has listed Shivkumar’s bail plea hearing on Wednesday at 3.30 pm.

The judge said that in case the MLA is admitted to the hospital, his custody be taken over by the Superintendent of Tihar jail and the doctors hand over his custody only on his discharge.

“In case, he is admitted in the hospital, his custody shall be taken over by the Superintendent Central Jail, Tihar who shall provide guards for the accused. In case of his admission in the hospital, the doctors shall hand over his custody to the Superintendent, Central jail, Tihar only on his discharge,” said the judge.

The court taking into consideration the medical records of Shivakumar, who suffers from hypertension and fluctuating blood pressure and has undergone angioplasty earlier, allowed Shivkumar to take his medicines to Tihar, in case he is taken there, subject to the approval of doctor on duty in the jail.

The ED has, however, sought the court’s permission to interrogate the Congress leader during his 14-day judicial custody as the probe agency claimed in the court that his interrogation was yet to be completed.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj and Special Public Prosecutors Amit Mahajan, N K Matta and Nitesh Rana, appearing for the ED, told the court that Shivakumar’s health condition did not allow his effective questioning. Meanwhile, the Congress leader’s counsels, senior advocates A M Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi opposed the ED plea for judicial custody and sought his bail on medical grounds.

Karnataka Congress MLA DK Shivakumar who was being grilled by the Enforcement Directorate over his alleged involvement in a money laundering case had been arrested for ‘not cooperating’. He has been arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on September 3.

The alleged money laundering by DK Shivakumar came to light after raids by the tax officials on August 2, 2017, on Shivakumar’s four flats in New Delhi, which led to the seizure of unaccounted cash worth Rs. 8.59 crore without evidence of its source of income.

The tax agencies had filed cases against Shivakumar and four other persons associated with him under Sections 277 and 278 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Sections 120(B), 193 and 199 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On the basis of the charge sheet filed by the I-T officials, the ED had booked a money laundering and hawala transaction case in September last year.

Recently, the Enforcement Directorate had summoned Shivkumar’s daughter on September 10 (Thursday) in a money laundering case involving her father. The ED is investigating her trips to Singapore with her father DK Shivakumar in 2017.

The Income Tax department had found certain cross-border transactions which DK Shivakumar and his daughter couldn’t provide a satisfactory explanation to. The Enforcement Directorate believes that these transactions could be hawala transactions and therefore they have summoned Shivakumar’s daughter for questioning.

Days after international shooter Vartika Singh’s squabble with Ayodhya litigant Iqbal Ansari, case to be registered against him

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Days after international shooter Vartika Singh’s squabble with Ayodhya litigant Iqbal Ansari, case to be registered against him

A case will be registered against Iqbal Ansari, the Ayodhya land dispute litigant who had recently accused international shooter Vartika Singh of attacking him. Ansari and Singh had met at the former’s home to discuss issues pertaining to tripal talaq and Ayodhya. However, their discussion escalated to a heated exchange and a scuffle ensued.

On September 3, based on an alert from Ansari’s family, the police from the Ram Janmabhoomi police station had taken Singh and her associate into custody.

However, as per a report, the court has accepted Singh’s plea to register a case against Ansari. The court of Judicial Magistrate II has ordered Ram Janmabhoomi police station to file a case and apprise the court of the developments within three days.

Singh was taken into custody and sent to Lucknow. She had, in turn, accused Ansari of treason among other charges. Singh had filed a petition under Section 156/3, which has been accepted. On behalf of Vartika Singh, Supreme Court lawyer Sangeeta Singh argued.

Muslim student in Pakistan confesses he cooked up blasphemy charges against Hindu principal which led to violence on Hindus

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Muslim student in Pakistan confesses he cooked up blasphemy charges against Hindu principal which led to violence on Hindus

The atrocities against minorities in Pakistan continued unabated after a Muslim mob unleashed violence against Hindus in Ghotki in Sindh province of Pakistan. The violence followed a complaint by a Muslim student accusing his Hindu school principal of making an alleged blasphemous remark.

Now, the student whose complaint triggered the massive violence has confessed that the blasphemy complaint was “cooked up” to target the Hindu school principal.

Muhammad Ihtisham, on whose complaint his father had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the principal of Sindh Public School, has revealed in a social media post that he was very angry with the principal Notan Lal for scolding him. Since he had not memorised his lesson, the principal had scolded him. This prompted him to make false allegations of blasphemy against the principal. He added that he had no clue that the issue would blow up to such a proportion. He urged “Sir Notan” for forgiveness in the social media post.

SS of Mohammed Ihtisham’ social media post

The minority Hindus in Pakistan had to pay the price for Mohammed Ihtisham’s personal grudge. An angry mob had attacked the SSD Dhaam Mandir and broken the shops in Jillani Market belonging to Suresh Kumar, Gopi Chand, Gurmukh Das and others in broad daylight on September 16 after Ihtisham had accused his school principal of making ‘blasphemous’ remarks.

Properties worth millions of rupees were destroyed and several shops belonging to the Hindu community looted on Sunday by an enraged Muslim mob in Ghotki town.

Later, the angry mob blocked the National Highway in protest against the alleged the teacher. They raised slogans and demanded that authorities arrest Prof Lal over the blasphemous remark. The violence also occurred in towns like Mirpur Mathelo and Adilpur, apart from Ghotki.

Notan Lal was booked under Article 295(c) that pertains to “derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet” of the Pakistan Penal Code and arrested following the protests, road blockages and riots in Ghotki city and its adjacent small towns. Meanwhile, the police also registered three cases against more than 200 people in connection with the anti-Hindu riots in Sindh province’s Ghotki town.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has taken cognisance of the matter and raised concerns over the “outbreak of mob violence.”

Today, reports emerged that the incident of alleged blasphemy was linked to an earlier kidnapping and attempt to forcefully marry an underage Hindu girl. The activists said the allegations were made against the principal so that the abduction could be covered up. A news report in Pakistani media outlet Naya Daur stated that the attacks against the Hindu community were pre-planned by the goons of notorious Radical Islamic leader Mian Mithoo. Mian Mithoo is alleged to be behind the abduction and forced conversion of several Hindu underage girls in the area.

Pakistan is notoriously known for its persecution of not only religious minorities but also ethnic minorities within their own country. The forceful conversion programmes have often been unleashed against the minorities especially Christians, Sikhs and Hindus living in in the country with utmost brutality.

PoK is part of India and one day we will have physical jurisdiction over it: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

OpIndia Staff
-
0
PoK is part of India and one day we will have physical jurisdiction over it: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

Reiterating India’s long-held position on the status of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar while addressing the media stated that PoK is, has and always remain an integral part of India and one day India will exercise physical jurisdiction over it.


Jaishankar made it amply clear that with regards to Pakistan, the issue to be up for discussion and deliberation is not Article 370 but terrorism emanating from their country. He asserted that there isn’t a single country in the world which so overtly engages in promoting terrorism in another country and considers it as an important pillar of its foreign policy.


Slamming Pakistan for its horrifying treatment of minorities, EAM said that Pakistan is a nation that indulges in passing sanctimonious sermons to other nations while not following them itself. “Regarding the treatment meted out to minorities in Pakistan is not a new thing. You have a country that is waxing eloquent to other nations while the number of minorities have drastically come down in their own country in the last 70 years to such a dismal level that they don’t even bother putting out the number of minorities any longer,” Jaishankar said.

Furthermore, drawing attention towards the situation in Sindh province of Pakistan, S. Jaishankar asserted that if human rights audit is carried out in this part of the world, he is pretty sure who would emerge last on the list, referring to Pakistan for its grave human rights violations in Sindh and Balochistan.


The External Affairs Minister also spoke about Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is currently lodged in a jail in Pakistan. Jaishankar said that seeking access to Kulbhushan was a top priority in ascertaining his well-being and providing the remedy that has been mandated by the ICJ. Taking a swipe at Pakistan, Jaishankar said that whether the Pakistanis carried out the order as mandated by ICJ in letter and spirit is obvious to all.

On issue of the recent face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers near Pangong Lake in Ladakh, Jaishankar categorically refuted the rumours of skirmishes between the armed forces of the two countries. He said because of the differing perception of line of control, there was a face-off which was resolved through appropriate mechanism that are in place to solve such disputes.

With regards to President Trump attending Howdy Modi event at Houston, EAM Jaishankar hailed it as a great achievement of the Indian-American community in America and lauded the community for how it is regarded in the US, the respect it commands there.

In the matter related to the extradition of hate speech peddler Zakir Naik, EAM S. Jaishankar claimed that the government wants him back and is working towards that end.

West Bengal: BJP to organise Pind Daan for 80 party workers who fell prey to TMC’s wrath

OpIndia Staff
-
0
West Bengal: BJP to organise Pind Daan for 80 party workers who fell prey to TMC’s wrath

West Bengal has been a hotbed for political violence and almost 82 BJP workers in the last six years have fallen prey to the ruling Trinamool Congress’ wrath. Now, West Bengal BJP has decided to organise a ‘Pind Daan’ for the salvation of these karyakartas. The state unit has invited Home Minister Amit Shah and party working president J.P. Nadda to the ceremony.

The state unit has decided to conduct the pind daan (a Hindu ritual to appease departed souls) in the Ganga in Kolkata on 28 September. Pind daan is an important Hindu ritual organised to bring salvation to departed souls. The ideal time for pind daan is during Shraddh. On the occasion of Mahalaya, Hindus perform this traditional ritual of ‘tarpan’ or ‘pind daan,’ which as per ancient texts help the dead souls attain moksha (salvation).

The state BJP president Dilip Ghosh and senior BJP leader Mukul Roy had met the Home Minister last week to invite him to the event. “We have requested Amit Shahji to be present in a condolence event (tarpan) at the Ganga Ghat for nearly 80 BJP workers killed in Bengal since 2013,” Ghosh said and added, “He said he will certainly try.”

Senior BJP leader of the Bengal unit, Pratap Banerjee, said the party had begun preparations for the event. “We will bring mitti (soil) from 82 villages of the martyrs that will be immersed (pravahit) in the holy Ganga so that the souls of these workers rest in peace,” he said. “Family members of the deceased workers have also been invited for this Pind Daan. BJP workers will start collecting mitti from these villages starting this week,” confirmed Banerjee.

For decades now, political violence has been an integral part of West Bengal and there has been a history of an unseemly spike whenever a settled political regime is put under pressure by a resurgent opposition. When Mamata Banerjee came to power, overthrowing the incumbent Left Front government similar scenes of violence played out in the state. TMC was then in the ascendant, the ruling Left was unyielding and unforgiving, and violence spawned more violence.

The Nandigram and Singur violence is an importunate example of the incidents of political violence then. Mamata and her political party had widely used this issue along with the political war cry Ma Mati Manush in their election campaigns. In fact, she on the occasion of Nandigram Divas in 2017 had called the incident “violent politics of the CPI(M).”

When Mamata came to power in the 2011 assembly elections, ending 34 years of Left rule, her success was predicated on winning a large number of Left cadres over to her side. Now, as the BJP mounts a challenge to Mamata’s rule by weaning away a number of those cadres to their side, Mamata has been left completely off-balance. Mamata led TMC has not been able to assimilate this glissade and has been unleashing atrocities on BJP karyakartas in Bengal.

Ever since BJP made successful inroads into the state, sporadic incidents of political violence and vandalism have been reported both pre and post the election seasons.

With the latest murder of the BJP worker named Dalu Sheikh in West Bengal’s Birbhum at the hands of TMC goons, BJP has claimed the total number of its workers in Bengal to have buckled under Mamata’s pressure has gone up to 82.

‘We want Zakir Naik back’, Foreign Minister rebuts Malaysian PM’s claim that Modi didn’t request the radical Islamic preacher’s extradition

OpIndia Staff
-
0
‘We want Zakir Naik back’, Foreign Minister rebuts Malaysian PM’s claim that Modi didn’t request the radical Islamic preacher’s extradition

India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar has strongly rebutted the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s claim on Tuesday saying that India has been “persistently and relentlessly” pursuing the extradition of radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.

The Malaysian Prime Minister had stoked a controversy on Monday by claiming that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not request him to hand over Radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who is facing an arrest in India for money laundering and terror-related charges.

Reportedly, the Malaysian prime minister added that his Indian counterpart whom he met on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in Russia earlier this month, made no extradition request for the radical Islamic preacher despite official notice from New Delhi.

Speaking to local media, Mahathir Mohamad said, “Not many countries want him (Zakir Naik). I met Prime Minister Modi, he didn’t ask me for him.”

However, Indian foreign minister, S Jaishankar while speaking to reporters at a media interaction made a strong rebuttal by saying: “Let me make it very clear for the record. There is an extradition request (sent in January 2018). We want Zakir Naik back and that is what we are working on.” This media interaction was organised to outline the foreign ministry’s achievements and key focus areas in the first 100 days of the government.

Jaishankar also confirmed that the expectation that the controversial Islamic preacher should be extradited to India was communicated at the meeting of the two prime ministers earlier this month.

Mahathir Mohamad’s statement comes nearly a fortnight after Prime Minister Modi met his Malaysian counterpart in Russia at the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum meet. Media reports at that time had quoted foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale and stated that the issue of Naik was discussed between the two leaders.

Radical Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has also been causing trouble in Malaysia, a country where he was granted permanent resident status. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad mentioned that he was given the status by the previous government and now, due to his racially hateful speeches and statements, Malaysian authorities have imposed a nationwide ban on Zakir Naik stopping him from speaking in public.

It is notable here that many Malaysian states have also barred Naik from entering their jurisdiction.

1...5,4025,4035,404...6,973Page 5,403 of 6,973

Contact: [email protected]

About us

News and opinion website that brings you reports and narrative from a perspective often ignored or suppressed by the mainstream media of India.

Follow us

© OpIndia.com