Hyderabad, Sept. 23 -- The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad arrested Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui in Meerut on Tuesday night on charges of alleged illegal religious conversions. Siddiqui is one of the prominent scholars from western Uttar Pradesh and the president of Global Peace Center as well as Jamia Imam Waliullah Trust.

Here are the responses of a noted authority on Muslim Minority Affairs in India, Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan to media questions about the arrest of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui.

Yes, I know him as a respected community leader, a religious scholar who runs a madrassa in Phulat in UP. I know him for the last three decades at least. He is a genuine and extremely polite and civilised person. The arrest of such a popul...