Dhaka Attacker Followed Indian Islamic Preacher Zakir Naik

Militant Rohan Imtiaz propagated Peace TV’s controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s messages on Islam on Facebook.

Televangelist Zakir Naik. (Photo: TNM)

Two of the five Bangladeshi militants who hacked 20 people to death at a restaurant in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone were influenced by three controversial Islamists, including Indian Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.

Militant Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, propagated Peace TV’’s controversial preacher Naik’s messages on Islam on Facebook in 2015.

Naik, a popular but controversial Islamic orator and founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation, is banned in the UK and Canada for his hate speech aimed at other religions. He is among the 16 banned Islamic scholars in Malaysia, but remains popular in Bangladesh.

Another Dhaka attacker Nibras Islam, 22, used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State – Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness on Twitter in 2014.

Shami Witness is the Twitter account of 24-year-old Mehdi Biswas, who is also facing trial in India for running propaganda for the Islamic State.

Biswas was arrested in December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014. He was charged for operating the “single most influential pro-ISIS Twitter account.”

49-year-old Choudary, a British citizen of Pakistani-origin, is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti-terrorism law. His Twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him.

Choudary allegedly told his supporters to travel to territories controlled by the “barbaric regime” in Syria and Iraq.