Kuala Lumpur
Renowned Indian Islamic preacher, Dr Zakir Naik, has said that the Modi government offered to scrap the cases against him in exchange for his support on Kashmir move.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Zakir Naik in a video message making rounds on social media says that he rejected the deal in which he was offered a safe passage back home in return for his allegiance to the government’s stance on Kashmir.
He also maintains that the government officials, who approached him on behalf of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Home Minister, Amit Shah, told him that India wanted to use his connection to improve relations with Muslim countries.
Dr Zakir Naik, who is wanted by the investigative agencies in India in false cases registered against him, says that several other prominent Muslim leaders were either threatened or blackmailed into submission around the same time.
“A few months ago, the Indian officials approached me for a private meeting with a representative of the Indian government. When he came to Putraya, Malaysia, in the fourth week of September 2019, he told me I am coming straight after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah,” he said.
“He told me that he came to meet me under the direct instruction of PM Modi and Amit Shah to work out a way for my safe return to India as they wanted to use my connections to improve relations with the Muslim countries,” Dr Naik said in the video.
Zakir Naik said that the offer left him bewildered as it was too good to be true. “I was left wondering how this is possible from the same Prime Minister, who used my name no less than nine times in a span of less than two minutes in his election speech in May 2019.”
He said that in the meeting which lasted a few hours, he was asked to support the BJP government’s August 05 decision to repeal Kashmir’s special status and divide it into two union territories.—KMS
