 "Tarek Fatah")
Two days after issuing a 'fatwa' against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Kolkata cleric on Monday threatened to slit the throat of Pakistan-born author and political commentator Tarek Fatah, with whom he appeared on a television programme.
"Your throat will also be slit," Syed Mohammad Nurur Rahman Barkati, the Shahi Imam of Kolkata's Tipu Sultan Mosque, told Fatah while responding angrily to the latter's statement that India has come a long way from the medieval practices when people's throats were slit.
Both Barkati and Fatah were part of a discussion programme on a private news channel where the cleric viciously attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of spreading communalism and ruining the life of common people through the demonetisation move.
He verbally attacked Fatah, who opposed the cleric's decision of issuing 'fatwa' against the Prime Minister and offered a cash prize.
After the show, Fatah demanded the Muslim cleric's arrest by the Kolkata Police for threatening him.
"Kolkata Mullah threatens me on live TV. Will Kolkata Police arrest him?" he said in Twitter.
Barkati on Saturday issued a 'fatwa' against the Prime Minister, accusing him of 'bluffing' people through demonetisation, evoking a sharp reaction from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which demanded his arrest. He also announced a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh to whoever executes the 'fatwa'.
The West Bengal unit of the BJP lodged a police complaint against the cleric on Sunday, demanding his immediate arrest.
