India to consider ban on preacher Zakir Naik if Bangladesh requests

India will consider a ban on Islamic preacher Zakir Naik if it gets a request from Bangladesh, junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju has said.

He told bdnews24.com on Wednesday that India has a law called Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

"But we usually use this to ban organisations whose activities jeopardise national security. We have not banned individuals so far under this Act," he said.

But Rijiju said Bangladesh's security was of 'utmost concern' to India.

"If we have a request from Dhaka to ban Zakir Naik, we will seriously consider it," Rijiju said.

He said Indian Home Ministry is planning to undertake an overall review of all such mass media which promotes religious radicalism.

"We need to guard against them and close them down if necessary."

Naik is said to have radicalised thousands of South Asian Muslims by his hyper preaching on Peace TV -- during which he even asked "Muslims to become terrorists".

Bangladesh intelligence says Naik had much influence on one of the Gulshan cafe attackers, Rohan Imtiaz. who is said to have followed him closely.

Naik is the founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, which is banned in UK and Canada, because he fuels hate against other religions.

Naik is banned in Malaysia, a Muslim majority nation.