Srinagar: Self Proclaimed Hindu Nationalist Rajesh Jhaveri has threatened to kill a Kashmiri journalist Raqib Hameed Naik for writing a piece that reveals the COVID funding that five right wing groups had received.
Raqib took to twitter on Tuesday and wrote, “On May 13, I received a long message on Facebook with death threats from Hindu nationalist Rajesh Jhaveri regarding my COVID funding report.”
On May 13, I received a long message on Facebook with death threats from Hindu nationalist Rajesh Jhaveri regarding my COVID funding report.
He has threatened to kill me incase I write more on Hindu rightwing. Have reported it to FBI & will followup with local law enforcement.
— Raqib Hameed Naik (@raqib_naik) May 18, 2021
As per the tweet, Rajesh has threatened to kill Raqib incase he writes more on Hindu right-wing.
In a piece published in Al-jazeera, Raqib had reported that about five organisations with ties to Hindu supremacist and religious groups had received COVID-19 relief funding amounting to $833,000. These funds were released by the United States’ Small Business Administration (SBA), a federal agency that helps small business owners and entrepreneurs.
As per the report, SBA gave the funds as part of its Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advance (EIDLA), Disaster Assistance Loan (DAL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
All three programmes were aimed to provide economic relief to distressed businesses and keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 crisis in the worst-hit nation in the world.
However the fundings made to these right-wing groups has angered many.
“America certainly should not be funding, inadvertently or not, extremist groups or any groups or individuals tied to extremism or polarisation,” Christian Picciolini, a former white supremacist and founder of Free Radicals Project had told Al-Jazeera.
The journalist further wrote that he had reported the threat to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and was to follow it up with the local law enforcement as well.
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