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Who is Zakir Naik, the Islamic televangelist India’s chasing, and Malaysia’s loathe to give up?
- The colourful cleric is accused of using his satellite television channel Peace TV to encourage terrorism – and has been linked to the perpetrators of the 2016 Dhaka cafe attack
- He has called for gay people to be executed and has called the September 11 attacks ‘an inside job’
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India has made a formal request to Malaysia to extradite the controversial Islamic preacher and televangelist Zakir Naik, who is wanted on charges of spreading extremism and money laundering.
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Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Wednesday confirmed the request had been made and rejected suggestions by the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad this week that the 53-year-old preacher might be unable to get a fair trial if he returned home.
“India has extradition arrangements with many nations. In the past, there have been numerous cases of successful extradition to India. The fairness of the Indian justice system has never been in question,” Kumar said.
Zakir, a certified medical doctor, has been living in Malaysia since 2016, having fled India amid accusations that he had helped radicalise a group of teenagers who carried out a terror attack on a cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, which killed 22 people.
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India’s National Investigation Agency accuses the preacher, who founded the Islamic Research Foundation and the satellite television channel Peace TV, of using his speeches and lectures to encourage terrorism. Though Zakir denies the claims, both the foundation and the TV channel have been banned in India.
The agency revoked Zakir’s passport in 2017 after he failed to appear when summoned to cooperate in their investigation.
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