The government said on Friday that it will take all necessary measures to bring Indian fugitive and radical Islamist preacher Zakir Naik back to India to face justice and that it is in talks with the Oman authorities in the matter.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, in his media briefing, said that Zakir Naik is an accused in numerous cases in India.
“He is a fugitive from justice; we have taken up the matter with the government of Oman; and we will continue to take all necessary measures to bring him to face justice in India,” he added.
Naik, who has been residing in Malaysia since 2017, was invited to Oman to deliver two religious lectures in Muscat on March 23 and March 25 during Ramzan.
He had fled India in 2016 after his organisation Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) was banned, and a First Information Report was lodged under his name.
He is accused of instigating Muslim youth and terrorists in India and abroad to commit terrorist acts. He is also accused of money laundering.
In 2019, he was also banned from delivering public speeches in Malaysia after he made racist comments against Hindus and Chinese Malaysians.
The Government of India had taken his channel, Peace TV, off the air for peddling hate propaganda. His Peace TV network is also banned in Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka, and the UK. One of the accused in the 2016 Dhaka Cafe bombing case had confessed that he was influenced by Naik’s Peace TV to commit the terrorist act.
