I Give 50% Credit for My Ghar Wapsi to Pak Army, ISI's Persecution And Threats: Shayan Ali to News18

Pakistani social media influencer Shayan Ali, now based in the United States, recently announced that he has decided to do “ghar wapsi" by leaving the Islamic faith and embracing Hinduism.

In an exclusive conversation with CNN-News18, Shayan said that because of persecution and threats from Pakistani authorities, he had to flee the country around September 2019.

“It all started in 2018, when I was accused of being a Jew and a RAW agent by the ISI. It was a very tough time for me. In 2019 I had to leave Pakistan because of all the threats," he said. “They figured out that I had different beliefs than them. We all know what ISI does to people who do not follow their rules or orders."

Shayan said that in December 2019, Pakistani authorities saw his Facebook post against the army and ISI. “They thought I was still in Pakistan. So what they did was they raided my house and my relatives’ house to find out where I was so that they could arrest me and torture me. Thankfully, I had left Pakistan two months before that. They still tried to silence my voice," he told CNN-News18.

At the root of the matter was a music video ‘Kashmir Hun Mein’, Shayan said. “Pakistani authorities contacted all the influencers there to push it. But when they approached me, I said this was fake propaganda. The video wanted to portray that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was persecuting the people of Kashmir. But viewers would have realised that this was propaganda. When I turned them down, they filed FIRs against me, saying I was an ISI agent and a Jewish agent," he said.

The social media influencer said that in 2020-21 he was introduced to ISKCON in the United States. “As a kid, I used to watch Krishna and Hinduism-related things on TV. When I came to the US, I started going to ISKCON. It helped me come out of depression. I felt a connection, I felt like they were my people," he said.

Shayan said that he would not be able to participate in programmes connected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US visit this month because he has to organise kirtan events for ISKCON.

“I plan to come to India by the end of the year. My family has always been very supportive. My cousin still lives in Moradabad. My grandfather made a blunder and moved to Karachi in 1947," he said.

Shayan said he thought this was the right time to announce my ghar wapsi. “I’ll give 50 per cent credit for it to the Pakistan army and ISI. Had they not threatened and persecuted, I wouldn’t have gone into depression and come into contact with ISKCON," he said.