By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mangaluru: A Division Bench of Karnataka high court has upheld the prohibitory order issued by Mangaluru city police commissioner S Murugan banning the entry of Dr Zakir Naik to Mangaluru between December 31 and January 6.
On Thursday, the vacation division bench of the high court comprising Justice B Manohar and Justice B Veerappa passed the order upholding the temporary ban on Dr Zakir Naik. However, it allowed South Karnataka Salafi Movement (SKSM), the host of the event, to hold the conference without inviting him.
After a week of communal tensions, the city police Commissioner S Murugan had on December 29, Tuesday, banned the entry of Naik and VHP leader Praveen Togadia into Mangaluru between December 31, 2015 and January 6, 2016.
Dr Naik was supposed to deliver a talk on the topic – “What Is Islam” at a peace conference scheduled to be organised on January 2 at Nehru Maidan in the Mangaluru.
Ismail Shafi of SKSM condemned police’s decision of cancelling Naik’s visit in the last minute and termed it as “unconstitutional and insult to religion” at a press meet on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a delegation from SKSM met home minister G Parameshwara and District minister B Ramanath Rai in Bengaluru in this regard. The minister has promised them that Naik’s programme will be held after two months in the same venue.
Following such an assurance SKSM has postponed the event for two months.