The Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday, November 13, extended the ban on the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF), founded and headed by preacher Zakir Naik, declaring it an unlawful association for another five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967.

Source: ANI via APNA MA TV

The fresh notification was issued a day before the existing ban was due to cease on November 14, 2026. It takes effect immediately and will remain in force for five years from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette, subject to any order that may be made under Section 4 of the Act.

Source: Kashmir News Trust (KNT)

What the Home Ministry cited

According to the Home Ministry, the IRF has been indulging in activities which are prejudicial to the security of the country and have the potential of disturbing peace and communal harmony and disrupting the secular fabric of the country. The ministry also cited what it called objectionable and subversive statements and speeches by Zakir Naik, and accused the organisation and its leadership of encouraging followers to foster hatred and enmity between different religious communities. These are the government's stated grounds for the ban.

Source: Mirror Now

A ban first imposed in 2016

The IRF was founded in February 1991 in Mumbai by Naik, who later left India and moved to Malaysia, where he obtained permanent residency, ANI reported. The Home Ministry first declared the IRF an unlawful association on November 17, 2016, and the ban was extended on November 15, 2021. A UAPA tribunal confirmed the declaration by its orders on May 22, 2017 and March 30, 2022.

Source: ANI via APNA MA TV

The latest notification was issued in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-sections (1) and (3) of Section 3 of the UAPA. As with earlier declarations, the fresh ban remains subject to scrutiny by a UAPA tribunal, which adjudicates whether there is sufficient cause for declaring an association unlawful.