Gag order first, terror tag later for Zakir Naik

New Delhi, Sept 12: The Centre is proposing a gag on controversial Islamic preacher, Dr Zakir Naik. While the legal opinion states that he should be booked under the anti-terror law for inciting people through his speeches, the home ministry would wait until the probes against him are complete.

The government does not want to rush through anything and would want to build a water tight case first. The ministry is still scrutinising the donations that have been made to the Islamic Research Foundation.

Nothing concrete has emerged out of this exercise as yet, the ministry while renewing the FCRA licence has,however, put the NGO on prior permission mode. Under this, the NGO would have to seek prior permission before it receives any donations.

The first step would be to gag Naik. The complaint is that Naik's speeches had inspired several people who went on to become terrorists. This was first flagged by Bangladesh which had said that one of the Dhaka cafe attackers was inspired by Naik's speeches.

Once a gag order is in place, he would not be permitted to deliver sermons in India. Any such attempt would be illegal and he can be booked by the police.

To a question on whether a ban would be imposed on Naik, officials say that under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, an individual can be banned if he is involved with a terrorist outfit. If our probe does indicate something to that effect then the ban would be enforced, the officer also said.

OneIndia News