KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will send an official letter to the Indian government to explain Malaysia’s stance for not sending back controversial preacher Zakir Naik to his country of origin.
Its minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he would discuss with Attorney-General Tommy Thomas to provide an accurate content for the letter.
“There was a request from India and Prime Minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) had already explained why we didn’t send (Dr Zakir) back.
“During my meeting with my counterpart from India (S. Jaishankar) last week in Bangkok in conjunction with the 35th ASEAN Summit, he had politely raised the issue and had asked us to send a letter as an official reply from us,” he said when winding up debate on the Supply Bill 2020 for his ministry at Dewan Rakyat (lower house of Parliament) here Thursday.
On the King Salman Centre for International Peace (KSCIP) that was cancelled last year, Saifuddin said the Cabinet wanted the issue to be reviewed to see any justification for it to continue.
Last year, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu was reported saying that Malaysia decided to shut down KSCIP and that its role would be absorbed into the Malaysian Institute of Defence and Security which comes under his ministry’s jurisdiction.
–NNN-BERNAMA