Art of Living Foundation founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has claimed that his faculty members and volunteers in Pakistan are being threatened through letters and calls from the Pakistan Taliban for over two months, accusing them of "conspiring against Islam" and wants them to leave the country at the earliest.
Reportedly, for the past 13 years, the foundation has 10,000 members in Pakistan and was teaching stress management techniques, breathing exercises that were purely secular in nature.
Talking to reporters, yoga guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that he will get in touch with Pakistan authorities at the earliest and demand security for his volunteers.
"We have got 10,000 followers of art of living. There is a lot of pressure on them. They are asking them to apologise and to stop Yoga practice. They are threatening people over phone.
Ravi Shankar claimed that his staff and volunteers have been getting warning letters and calls from the Pakistan Taliban for over two months.
Meanwhile, he said that the authorities in Pakistan have been informed about the threats the AOL members have received from the militant organisation.
Several natives of Pakistan were visiting the Art of Living centre in India regularly and good-will delegations from both countries have visited each other to create a peace building process between the two countries.
The Pakistan Taliban are allied with the Afghan militants of the same name and share a similar Jihadist ideology.
But they operate as a separate entity, focused entirely on toppling the Pakistani state and establishing strict Islamic rule in the nuclear-armed nation, whereas the Afghan Taliban are united by their campaign against invading foreign forces.
