The revelation about the 'list' also comes right after Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday stating that the Centre has taken cognisance of Zakir Naik's speeches and an investigation into the same would be carried out.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will prepare an exhaustive list of Indian Muslim preachers, whose names figured during interrogation of those arrested for their alleged links to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS).
The development coincides with interrogation of Hyderabad youth, Ibrahim Yazdani, who according to official sources revealed during questioning that he had volunteered to attend the annual peace conference organised by Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik in Mumbai six years ago.
The revelation about the 'list' also comes right after Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Friday stating that the Centre has taken cognisance of Zakir Naik's speeches and an investigation into the same would be carried out.
According to a senior NIA official, interrogation reports of around 38 suspected IS sympathisers and alleged operatives, who have been arrested from across the country in the last two years, will now be re-examined by agency sleuths investigating these cases. The idea is to fish out names of Indian-based Islamic preachers whom the IS suspects have either named directly or mentioned in passing references during their interrogations.
"Several accused persons suspected to be linked to IS and arrested by the NIA or state police had mentioned many a number of preachers during their questioning. But we only took action against those whose involvement was established by agency officials, case in point being Abdus Sami Qasmi. Now for investigation purposes NIA has decided to make a separate list of preachers whose sermons or lectures the accused follow or are directly inspired from," said the senior NIA official. The official added that action will be taken only if the preachers are found to have broken law of the land during their activities or sermons.
"Mere mention of preachers' name does not imply crime. We will definitely ascertain their involvement if any," the official said. In February, cleric Abdus Sami Qasmi of Seelampur was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district by the NIA for allegedly planning terror attacks in the country. According to sources in the agency, while Sami was allegedly directly involved with the IS-inspired module, Zakir Naik is the first prominent preacher to have figured during interrogation of the accused IS suspects.
"During questioning, accused Ibrahim Yazdani was asked about his beliefs. The accused told investigators that he began to follow Ahl-Hadees sect since 2004. In 2010, he registered himself as a volunteer to attend the 10-day annual camp organised by Dr Naik in Mumbai. The registration was done by Guidance Centre For Peace in Moghulpura, Hyderabad," said an official adding that the time gap between the attending of the camp and Ibrahim allegedly joining IS was a total of six years. "The gap is quite a lot so we cannot conclude that the accused was influenced after listening to the said preacher," the official added.
Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's name has continuously been in the news after Bangladeshi government revealed that his speeches had inspired some of the Dhaka cafe attackers in which 20 people were brutally killed by youth following a brief hostage situation.
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