After Rohan Imtiaz, one of the terrorists involved in the Dhaka attack, it has now emerged that Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convict in the 2010 German Bakery blasts in Pune, was also influenced by Islamist preacher Zakir Naik.
A few days after the attack in Bangladesh, a social media post by Imtiaz went viral, in which he had shared a quote he had attributed to Dr. Naik. The Union and Maharashtra government have ordered inquiries against Dr. Naik. Various agencies are probing Dr. Naik’s activities.
Some CDs recovered from Baig were of Naik’s sermons
Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convict in the 2010 German Bakery blasts in Pune, was a follower of Islamist preacher Zakir Naik’s sermons.
“We had recovered several CDs and printed literature from Baig when we arrested him in September 2010 and searched his residence at Udgir. Some of these CDs were of Dr. Naik’s sermons,” a police officer told The Hindu.
Explosives recovered
Baig is alleged to have been the mastermind of the blasts, and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) recovered 1.2 kg of RDX from his house after his arrest. He was sentenced to death by a trial court in 2013.
In March this year, however, the Bombay High Court acquitted him of terror charges and convicted him of the charge of possessing explosives, commuting his sentence from death to life imprisonment.
The State government last month challenged his acquittal in the Supreme Court.
The ATS, according to the source, is reviewing its files on all those arrested in terror cases so far, and has found that at least three or four of them were following Dr. Naik’s sermons. ATS officers are still ascertaining the extent to which they were influenced by Dr. Naik.
Since Friday, the Special Branch of the Mumbai Police has been viewing the CDs of the sermons. , and sources said the agency has found several statements which could have potentially led to law and order problems.
