On Sunday, the Bangladesh government banned the broadcast of India-based controversial preacher Zakir Naik’s Peace TV channel after reports that his “provocative” speeches inspired some of the militants who carried out the terror attack at Dhaka’s Holey Artisan Bakery.
Additionally, Bangladesh also scrapped the downlink permission for Peace TV, a day after it banned the channel. The Information Ministry issued the order to cancel Peace TV’s downlink permission needed to broadcast in the country.
“Based on the Cabinet committee’s decision, free-to-air TV channel Peace TV’s downlink permission has been cancelled for violating downlink conditions,” the ministry said in the directive.
The decision to ban the Mumbai-based preacher’s ‘Peace TV Bangla’ was taken during a special meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Law and Order, according to Industry Minister Aamir Hossain Amu, who chaired the meeting.
In the meeting, which was attended by senior ministers and top security officials, it was also decided that any sermons given during Friday prayers will be monitored for provocative content, Amu told reporters.
The government also appealed to Imams in the country to deliver lectures in line with Islam’s true ideology of denouncing terrorism and extremism, the minister said.
Besides senior ministers, the meeting was attended by the chief of police and head of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), paramilitary border guards and top officials of different security agencies.
Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said that Bangladesh’s intelligence agencies were investigating Naik and his financial transactions in Bangladesh.
He is on our security scanner... Our intelligence agencies are investigating his activities as his lectures appeared provocative.Asaduzzaman Khan
(With PTI inputs.)
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