NIA team in B'desh to probe alleged 'love jihad' case involving Zakir Naik

A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached Bangladesh to probe an alleged "love jihad" case involving Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and two hardline preachers of Pakistan origin, sources said on Wednesday.

New Delhi: A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached Bangladesh to probe an alleged "love jihad" case involving Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and two hardline preachers of Pakistan origin, sources said on Wednesday.

An NIA source related to the probe said, "A team of NIA has reached Bangladesh to collect details in the alleged love jihad case it had registered in August last year."

The source said that the team has gone to Bangladesh to question an Indian woman and the son of a Bangladeshi politician named Nafees. The NIA had recently questioned the woman through WhatsApp. The woman belongs to the family of a Chennai-based businessman.

The source said the NIA will question the woman on whether she married on her wish or was kidnapped from London, where she was living earlier for higher studies, and then taken to Bangladesh.

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The source said the anti-terror probe agency will also question Nafees and his politician father Sardar Shekhawat Hussain.

The NIA has named Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and two hardline preachers of Pakistan origin as accused in an FIR pertaining to the high-profile "love jihad" case.

The case involves the daughter of a Chennai-based businessman and the son of a top Bangladesh politician belonging to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The NIA is probing the Indian businessman's daughter and the Bangladesh politician's son's marriage in London.

Zakir Naik, who is wanted by the Indian enforcement agencies, and the hardline preachers of Pakistani origin based in the US have been named as accused in the case.

The girl's father had initially lodged a complaint with the Chennai Central Crime Branch in May last year, alleging that his daughter, who was studying in London, was radicalised and forced to convert to Islam.

He had also alleged that his daughter was abducted from London and taken to Bangladesh by some Bangladeshi nationals.

IANS