PAS denies working with Dr Zakir Naik, Thai separatist group to harbour Indira Gandhi’s ex, daughter

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 ― Islamist party PAS vehemently rejected today Hindu mother M. Indira Gandhi’s allegation that it was helping controversial Muslim preacher Dr Zakir Naik and a Thai separatist movement to hide her ex-husband and her daughter he abducted in 2009.

PAS deputy president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man called Indira’s claim baseless and demanded that she retract her claim as well as apologise for the grave accusation against PAS.

“We strongly object to the wild accusation Indira made that a PAS-linked group, a southern Thai separatist group and Zakir Naik are harbouring her former husband and daughter,” he said in a statement.

“This is a malicious claim and an attempt to link PAS to extremism,” he added when insisting his party was not involved in helping the fugitive Muhammad Ridhuan Abdullah escape detection by law enforcers.

The Free Malaysia Today news portal reported yesterday that Indira lodge a police report detailing her suspicion that a PAS-linked group, a southern Thai separatist movement and Dr Zakir’s supporters  were helping to protect Ridhuan, who was called K. Pathmanathan prior to his conversion.

She claimed to have been given this information from as far back as September last year but conceded that this was unverified.

Indira Gandhi Action Team spokesman Arun Doraisamy was recorded repeating the allegations on a video that was also uploaded to YouTube, adding that they knew the PAS-linked group was aware of Ridhuan’s whereabouts.

He further alleged that local police have failed to act on this and other information the group has provided.

Ridhuan took the couple’s daughter, Prasana Diksa, in 2009 when she was just 11 months old shortly after converting to Islam. He had also converted their three children to Islam without Indira’s knowledge.

After a protracted court battle, the Federal Court ruled last January that the unilateral conversions of Indira’s children were unlawful.

However, the police have yet to recover Prasana and return her to Indira despite the decision and a previous mandamus order she secured compelling the inspector-general of police to execute the recovery.