A prominent Christian leader has had his hunting firearms seized by New Zealand Police after minority lobby groups called for him to be investigated over anti-mass immigration comments.

Destiny Church founder Brian Tamaki filmed six carloads of police officers confiscating his guns after serving him with a temporary firearms suspension notice at his home in Auckland at 8.33am on Tuesday.

Mr Tamaki said in the nine-minute video he believed the seizure was being carried out as a result of comments he made in a video earlier this month calling for a “purge” of Muslims, Indians and Sikhs from New Zealand.

“They’ve cancelled my licence two days ago without telling me, I’ve been a hunter for 35 years, and I think this has all got to do with trying to defend my country, keep New Zealand New Zealand,” he said.

 

“The Indians and the Muslims have put pressure on the police, so you see who’s running this country. It’s the Muslims – Islam, and Indians, they’re running the country.”

He later told local media outlet Stuff “I think we all know that this was a political move” and said he was “surprised because these politicians have bent over backwards to the voice of immigrants over Kiwis”.

New Zealand Police confirmed the seizure and said in a statement: “A person’s licence can be temporarily suspended while the firearms regulator investigates further, to ensure the licence holder remains ‘fit and proper’ to possess a firearm.”

Police had previously confirmed they were assessing Mr Tamaki’s video, where he also brought up Christian churches being burned in India and asked: “If they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down? Tit for Tat.”

Mr Tamaki has repeatedly said his comments have been misrepresented and that he was not calling for violence, but was asking how people would react if the persecution of Christians in India was reversed in New Zealand.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon Mr Tamaki described the gun seizure as “an attack on free speech”, and again denied calling for violence in his video.

“In New Zealand today, if you speak up passionately against injustice, they send the police to take your guns,” he said.

“Indians have got my licence revoked. So do Indians now control the New Zealand Police and our politicians? This reeks of political interference.

“I said imagine if this was happening in New Zealand – if we were burning down mosques and temples. I was making a point. I never implied I was going to do it. I was highlighting the hypocrisy of our politicians.

“I am not a violent person. I have never been a violent person. They have taken my words completely out of context to silence me.”

The incident comes just after Hindu groups demanded the police take action against Mr Tamaki, and a coalition of ethnic and religious minority groups issued an “election ultimatum” to New Zealand’s political parties demanding new policies on “hate” and “social cohesion”.

New Zealand Police were criticised last month for tracking down a woman for a Facebook post saying “Welcome to New India” and for bowing at a Sikh temple, and questions were raised about political impartiality after an Indian superintendent revealed he was running as a Labour candidate.