Bangladesh cancels India-based TV channel run by controversial Islamic Preacher

PTI photo

By

Sheuli Akter

Bangladesh has cancelled the operation of an India-based TV channel run by controversial Islamic Preacher Zakir Naik‘s Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).

The country’s Ministry of Information in an order Monday cancelled operation of the television channel. The order reads “Based on the Cabinet committee’s decision, free-to-air TV channel Peace TV’s downlink permission has been cancelled for violating downlink conditions.”

In the order all relevant authorities have been asked to stop the broadcast of the channel across the country.

PTI photo

A day earlier the Bangladeshi government’s Cabinet committee on law and order on Sunday decided to close down Naik’s Peace TV in the backdrop of the earlier first-ever hostage crisis at a Spanish cafe in which 18 foreigners were killed. Six gunmen stormed the cafe on July 1 night in Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave Gulshan.

Army commandos brought an end to the unprecedented hostage situation, rescuing at least thirteen people, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian and a US-born Bangladeshi almost twelve hours after gunmen stormed the popular café.

All the attackers were killed during the operation by the law enforcers.

AP photo

A section of the Bangladesh media had then reported that at least two of the attackers who killed the hostages inside the Spanish cafe in Dhaka on July 1 were followers of Naik on social media.

Naik, who is based in Mumbai, has reportedly said that he “totally disagreed” that he had inspired the terror act in Dhaka. “There is not a single talk of mine where I encouraged one to kill another, whether Muslim or non-Muslim,” he reportedly said in a statement.

Sheuli Akter

Sheuli Akter, from Bangladesh, is a Special Correspondent and Editor of NsNewsWire, (Bangladesh’s First Press Newswire). Previously she had worked for Bangladesh’ top news agency, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) and top newspaper (now defunct) The Bangladesh Observer. She also gained an honourable mention in the first ever World Media Summit WMS Awards for ‘Exemplary News Professionals in Developing Countries’, receiving the award in Beijing in January 2015.