Zakir Naik: Won't return till I feel safe from unfair prosecution

Zakir Naik

Zakir Naik, the controversial Islamic preacher who has been living abroad to evade arrest in various cases in India, yesterday said he would not return home till he felt "safe from unfair prosecution".

Naik issued an audio statement amid reports that he was being deported to India from Malaysia. "The news of my coming to India is baseless and totally false. I have no plan to come to India till I feel safe from unfair prosecution," he said in the statement in English.

The 52-year-old Mumbai-born preacher added he would "surely return to my homeland" when he feels "that the government will be just and fair." Earlier Naik's spokesman issued a statement here on similar lines. Naik is facing charges, including for hate speech and money laundering, in India and has been living abroad since 2016 to evade arrest. He is facing a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after his sermons on his 'Peace TV' were cited as a reason by Bangladesh for an attack in Dhaka in 2016, which left 22 people dead.

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