Why the return of televangelist Zakir Naik will be a daunting task for India

Zakir Naik with Malay PM Mahathir Mohamad. (Source: Zakir Naik / Facebook)

Pressing Malaysia to fire televangelist Zakir Naik without prima facie evidence of his alleged crimes risks jeopardizing what has become a strong antiterrorist relationship between Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi. 19659006] According to the latest count, six terrorists who composed Khalistan modules in Southeast Asia, operating mainly in Malaysia and Thailand, were handed over to the Punjab through such cooperation between Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi. The cooperation began in October 2010 after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Malaysia, when the two countries strengthened bilateral relations into a strategic partnership.

In these six cases, the Special Working Group for Counter-Terrorism Operations from Malaysia to India. They ordered the summary expulsion of anyone on the basis of an Indian submission. Investigative agencies in Kuala Lumpur were convinced in their independent investigations of Indian clues that several terrorists of Indian origin living in Malaysia or commuting between their country and Thailand were, in fact, engaged in subversive activities on Malaysian soil

. , also known as Jasvir Singh, owned a posh restaurant in Little India, Kuala Lumpur, which served as a cover to facilitate Babbar Khalsa International's activities in Southeast Asia. A native of Nangal Ropar, he entered Malaysia as a software engineer and then bought the restaurant with what Malaysian investigators concluded that it was a case of financing. terrorism. Daljit Singh, aka Ajaib Singh Khalsa, worked for a telecommunications company in Mumbai, but settled in Malaysia and set up a Hindustani music school as a blanket in the dense Sentul Indian neighborhood of Kuala Lumpur. . Kanwal Singh Soundh, a network programmer, has set up a real estate renovation company in the hope of having access to diplomatic properties in Ampang where key embassies are located.

Tan Sri Dato & # 39; Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun, who was Director of Counter-Terrorism The working group, when these men were deported, told this author that the Indian authorities had informed him of alleged terrorist acts committed by them in India. "Here, their main task was to provide financial and logistical support to their comrades who used Malaysia as a transit point." Fuzi Harun is now Inspector General of Police, the main law enforcement officer in the country. the country

. led to Satpal Singh Raghvir Singh, who was the hub of these operations. He was arrested and deported to India. He had been living in the suburbs of Cheras in Kuala Lumpur since 2006, but that did not stop Fuzi Harun's men from acting until they found evidence that Satpal Singh was associated with terrorism.

The Malays were also arrested and handed over to the Punjab A Khalistan police officer Tiger Force Ramandeep Singh alias Goldy wanted since 2009 in the assassination of Rulda Singh, president of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, affiliated with RSS in Patiala. In addition, three Babbar Khalsa activists were caught when they arrived in Punjab from Malaysia on an indication of Kuala Lumpur.

Fuzi Harun's predecessor, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, confidently predicted that Malaysia's intelligence agencies were working with neighboring countries. Interpol to catch Jagtar Singh Tara, the brain in the assassination of Chief Minister Punjab Beant Singh, in 1995. A few months later, it happened in Thailand in January 2015, on an indication from the Malaysian intelligence services

considers that the case of Zakir Naik is significantly different from all those evictions that deserved cooperation with India in the fight against terrorism. When Datuk Hazizah Kassim, president of human rights affairs and international relations of the Malaysia Syarie Lawyers Association, said last weekend that an extradition request must be made not for political interests, it is clear that the establishment of Kuala Lumpur As part of an event celebrating on Tuesday the 93rd anniversary of Mahathir Mohamad, the new prime minister said about New Delhi's request to send back Naik: "We do not easily follow the demands of others, we have to look at all the factors before answering, otherwise someone will become a victim." He clearly sees Naik as a victim, not a terrorist. [19659006ThiscertainlydidnothelpMahathir'spetpeeveandpredecessorDatukSeriNajibRazaktoseekIndia'spatienceinthedeportationofNaikaftertheparliamentaryelectionsinwhichNajibwasunexpectedlydefeatedaccordingtosourcesinNewDelhiandKualaLumpurfamiliarwiththenegotiations

Malaysia was convinced that even though the courts granted Naik's extradition, Malaysia the basic law on the repatriation of aliens – the 1992 Extradition Act, commonly known as Law 479 – should replace the extradition treaty signed by Kuala Lumpur with India in January 2010.

"Law 479 is in force in Zakir, and according to article 47 of the law, it authorizes the Minister of the Interior to release or detain a fugitive, "said human rights activist Datuk Hazizah. "The extradition process is not automatic," simply because of a treaty to that effect with India. "Zakir has permanent resident status and as long as he has not created a problem or committed a crime, he has the right to fair justice," she said.

Vijay Gokhale, now Minister of Foreign Affairs, was High Commissioner to Malaysia signed the extradition treaty with Kuala Lumpur and deportations of Indian terrorists began as part of a bilateral strategic partnership. Gokhale knows better than anyone that the return of Naik is a difficult task.

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