Pakistani church leaders are calling on the government to ban Peace TV and its head Zakir Naik, the man who allegedly inspired the assailants of Bangladesh's gruesome bakery massacre.
"We demand a complete ban on Naik and similar preachers who promote hate and discrimination," Fr Qaiser Feroz, executive secretary of the Commission for Social Communications of the Pakistani Bishops' Conference, told AsiaNews.
"He never plays a role in bringing together the followers of different religions and presents a distorted image of Islam. We have plenty of such clerics in madrassas (Islamic seminaries)."
Since 2009, Peace TV has been broadcasted in Pakistan. Naik is popular for his radical speeches and beliefs.
The 50 year-old Mumbai-based Islamic preacher has approximately 14 million Facebook followers with a huge fan base in Bangladesh. One of the terrorists of the Dhaka attack Rohan Imtiaz, posted a message on Facebook quoting Naik which grew suspicions that the preacher may have influenced Imtiaz's actions.
"The largest percentages of my Facebook followers are from Bangladesh. 90 per cent of Bangladeshis would know me, including senior politicians, philanthropists, common men, students and more. 50 per cent would be my fans. Am I shocked that the attackers knew me? No," Naik said after he was accused for inspiring the Bangladeshi terrorists.
Peace TV network has since been taken off air in Bangladesh following the attack, while neighbouring country India is monitoring his speeches and activities. Naik has recently interacted with the media through Skype to denying the allegations and announce his plans of not returning to India anytime soon amid media trails.
Coming out to support the Church's statement, Fr Morris Jalal, a board member of a Lahore-based Catholic TV said, "Naik is anti-society as well as anti-religion."
"Peace TV is an extremist channel whose founder does not believe that Osama bin Laden was a terrorist," he added.