New Delhi, March 28 (The Telegraph): India and Malaysia are jointly scrambling to trace the senders of what appear to be the first direct threats by the Islamic State to an Indian public figure - spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar who is also an unofficial conflict negotiator for Delhi.
The Malaysia arm of Ravishankar's Art of Living cult received two threats on Tuesday, followed by a threat to the Penang hotel where the spiritual leader reached yesterday, the group and Indian officials independently confirmed.
The threats - in English and Arabic, with an image of an IS militant about to behead a man kneeling on the ground - bear the logo and motto of the militant group that has grabbed large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and has expanded operations to nearby Libya.
Malaysia is still verifying the origins of the threats that came in sealed courier packages, a Malaysian diplomat posted here said.
The threats carry details of Ravishankar's involvement in operations to assist IS victims near the Iraq-Iran border that were confirmed by the Art of Living Foundation, and cite this work as the rationale for the group's warnings.
Ravishankar is also an unacknowledged but key emissary in India's efforts to try and secure the release of 40 Indian workers held by the IS near Mosul - a part of the reason New Delhi is not taking the threats against him idly.
"Be warned that if Indian guru Ravishankar steps foot in Malaysia or any other Muslim countries, this is what will happen to him," one of the notes threatened, above the image of an imminent beheading.
The Art of Living group has over the past few months worked extensively with victims of the IS, the group's spokesperson said this evening, after a meeting in the US between Ravishankar and leaders of the Yazidis, a Kurdish minority group targeted by the militant outfit last year.
"He (Ravishankar) visited the Yazidis in northern Iraq last November," Art of Living spokesperson Nakul Dhawan said from Bangalore, where the group is headquartered. "And we've been working with IS victims ever since."
The relief work, Dhawan said, includes 100 tonnes of food purchased by Ravishankar's Art of Living group, and airdropped in the Sinjar Mountains in northern Iraq where the Yazidis had fled as their homeland was overrun by the IS last year.
But the relief work Ravishankar oversaw also included tough negotiations with local residents to secure the release of 200 Yazidi girls trapped in the mountains, facing the threat of being taken as slaves by the IS, an Indian official said, and Dhawan confirmed.
One girl, who had been raped 30 times by IS men, was relocated with her family to Australia by the Art of Living group, Dhawan claimed. "It is possible this might have angered them," he said.
The threats also carry a chilling reminder of an open offer for talks with the IS that Ravishankar made in public ahead of his Iraq visit.
"He said he wants to meet us," one of the threats said. "He will meet us very soon."
Ravishankar today went ahead with two yoga-cum-meditation workshops in Penang.
On Sunday, he flies to Kuala Lumpur where he is scheduled to receive the Grand Laureate prize, one of Malaysia's most prestigious civilian awards.
