Zakir Naik's Mumbai office surrounded by police as 'precautionary measure'
MUMBAI: Indian police officials were deployed outside the office of Islamic preacher and scholar Zakir Naik on Thusrday, Times of India reported.
The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper, earlier reported that Rohan Imtiaz, one of the five suspected militants involved in the recent Dhaka bloodbath, ran a propaganda campaign on Facebook last year quoting Naik's speech on Peace TV.
Indian Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju earlier this week said "Zakir Naik's speech is a matter of concern for us. Our agencies are working on this. But as a minister, I will not comment what action will be taken," according to an Indian Express report.
Security personnel have been deployed outside Naik's Islamic Research Foundation office in Mumbai as a 'precautionary measure', a senior Mumbai police official said.
"We have neither received any threat perception nor particular instructions from the state or Central government. We have deployed our forces only as a precautionary measure to avoid any untoward incident," he said.
Naik, who has in the past advocated that "every Muslim should be a terrorist", was banned from entry into the United Kingdom in 2010.
Naik rubbishes reports of inspiring Dhaka attacker
In a video statement later in the day, Naik rubbished media reports about inspiring one of the attackers to carry out the Dhaka cafe carnage.
He said he never condoned terrorism or killing of innocent people in his speeches.
"Just because a person knows a personality who is famous and a celebrity, you cannot attribute every act of the person to the celebrity," Naik said in a WhatsApp video available with India's NDTV.
"If you listen to my talks, you will never ever find in any of them that I have condoned terrorism or killing of an innocent human being," he added.