Five more years of restrictions, a day before expiry
India's Ministry of Home Affairs has extended the ban on Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) for another five years, issuing a notification on November 13, 2026, one day before the existing restrictions were due to expire. The decision keeps the organisation designated as an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, into November 2031.
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The notification, signed by Home Ministry Joint Secretary Rakesh Rathi, cites threats to national security, religious harmony and India's sovereignty and integrity. The ministry alleges that Naik and the organisation have encouraged hostility between religious communities and inspired young people in India and abroad to commit terrorist acts.
The extension continues restrictions first imposed in November 2016 and renewed in November 2021. Its immediate effect is to maintain the legal ban on the foundation. India's effort to bring Naik back from Malaysia remains a separate process, with Malaysia continuing to refuse his extradition.
Naik, whose full name is Zakir Abdul Karim Naik, founded the IRF in Mumbai in February 1991. He left India in 2016 and lives in Malaysia as a permanent resident. Indian authorities seek his return over allegations including money laundering and incitement to extremism. He denies the allegations.
The decision brings together two parts of a dispute that has lasted a decade: India's restrictions on the organisation and its pursuit of its founder overseas. The new notification extends the first, while the diplomatic and legal disagreement over the second continues.
What the notification says
The Home Ministry invoked subsections (1) and (3) of Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, commonly called the UAPA. The law gives the central government powers to declare an association unlawful. In practical terms, the notification continues the IRF's status as a prohibited organisation under Indian law.
The ministry's notification sets out both the duration of the declaration and a qualification concerning orders under Section 4 of the Act:
In exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-sections (1) and (3) of Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (37 of 1967), the central government hereby declares the Islamic Research Foundation as an unlawful association and directs that this notification shall, subject to any order that may be made under Section 4 of the said Act, have effect for a period of five years from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.
The previous declaration was issued on November 15, 2021, under Section 3(1). The ministry identified November 14, 2026, as its expiry date under Section 6(1), explaining why the new order was issued immediately before that deadline.
November 2031 is the stated endpoint of the latest extension. The notification ties the precise five year period to publication in the Official Gazette and makes its operation subject to any order under Section 4.
Why the government continued the ban
The Home Ministry's central allegation is that the IRF and its members, particularly Naik, have encouraged and assisted followers in promoting religious disharmony, enmity, hatred and ill will. It says those activities threaten India's integrity and security.
The ministry also alleges that Naik has used speeches and statements to inspire young people of a particular religion in India and abroad to commit terrorist acts. Its notification describes the president of the foundation in these terms:
The statements and speeches made by Dr Zakir Naik, the president of the IRF, are objectionable and subversive.
International satellite television networks, the internet, print publications and social media are all named as channels through which Naik's statements have reached millions of people worldwide. The ministry's case therefore concerns the circulation of his messages across borders as well as the organisation's activities in India.
Home Minister Amit Shah announced the extension on X, accusing the organisation of promoting communal hatred, terrorism and separatism. His statement presented the decision as part of the government's policy against terrorism and activities it considers hostile to India.
The concern about regrouping
The ministry says the IRF could resume its alleged unlawful activities if the restrictions were allowed to expire. It specifically warns that the organisation could reorganise activists who remain absconding, meaning people who have not been located or brought before the authorities seeking them.
The government also alleges that the organisation could spread hostility between communities, promote sentiments against the country and support militancy linked to separatism. Separatism means seeking to break a territory away from the country to which it belongs.
India's secular framework, another concern named in the notification, provides the setting for the government's allegations about religious hatred. The ministry argues that encouraging hostility between religious groups threatens peace and the ability of those communities to live together.
The foundation has also faced allegations of radicalising young people and involvement in money laundering. Those accusations form part of the wider proceedings involving Naik and the IRF. The latest action is the government's decision to continue the organisation's unlawful association designation.
No new response from Naik or the IRF to the November 13 notification was identified. His previously stated position is that he denies the allegations against him.
How the case reached this point
The IRF's history stretches back more than 35 years, but the current period of prohibition began after Naik left India in 2016. The sequence of dated actions shows how the organisation's ban and the effort to secure his return developed alongside each other.
- February 1991: Naik founded the Islamic Research Foundation in Mumbai.
- 2015: Naik received permanent resident status in Malaysia, according to the Malaysian parliamentary account described in earlier coverage.
- 2016: Naik left India. On November 17, the Indian government declared the IRF an unlawful association for five years.
- 2017: India's National Investigation Agency began pursuing an Interpol Red Notice against Naik.
- January 19, 2018: Malaysia received India's formal extradition request.
- May 29, 2020: Malaysia received an Indian diplomatic note asking it to reconsider its refusal.
- November 15, 2021: India renewed the IRF ban for another five years.
- November 13, 2026: The Home Ministry issued the latest extension, continuing the restrictions into November 2031.
The 2016, 2021 and 2026 decisions amount to an initial ban followed by two renewals. Together, they extend the planned period of restrictions to roughly 15 years from the first declaration.
Why Naik remains in Malaysia
Malaysia's position was set out shortly before India's latest notification. In a written parliamentary reply discussed in the November 3 account of Malaysia's continued extradition refusal, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said no new formal Indian extradition request had been received and no commitment had been made to surrender Naik.
Saifuddin identified two communications: the request received on January 19, 2018, and the diplomatic note received on May 29, 2020. Malaysia treated the later communication as an appeal to reconsider its existing decision.
Saifuddin, who was answering Pengkalan Chepa MP Ahmad Marzuk Shaary, stated the government's position:
The government has decided not to extradite Zakir to India. No commitment has been made to extradite him.
Malaysia cited Article 6 of its extradition treaty with India, signed in 2010, together with its Extradition Act 1992. Article 6 sets out restrictions on surrender, including where the requested country considers an alleged offence political in character. It also lists categories of offences that the treaty excludes from that description.
Extradition is the legal process through which one country hands a person to another to face criminal proceedings or serve a sentence. India's designation of the IRF operates under Indian law; Naik's surrender requires action through the legal framework governing Malaysia's response.
Malaysia's parliamentary account places Naik's permanent residency in 2015, before he left India in 2016. He has continued to live outside India while Indian authorities pursue his return.
The Interpol request and overseas travel
The National Investigation Agency has sought an Interpol Red Notice against Naik since 2017, but Interpol has not accepted the request. A Red Notice asks police in participating countries to locate a person and provisionally arrest them pending extradition or similar legal action. Each country applies its own law when deciding how to respond.
Naik has continued travelling outside Malaysia, including to Gulf countries to deliver religious sermons. He met Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad in October 2024 and visited Pakistan again in February 2025.
Indian investigations have also examined his name in connection with the 2016 attack on a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and cases involving recruitment for Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in India. Indian authorities have accused him of influencing people through inflammatory religious speeches.
The combination of overseas residence, continuing travel and widely distributed broadcasts helps explain the reach of the government's concerns. The Home Ministry's notification focuses on an Indian organisation whose founder addresses audiences beyond India's borders.
What changes after the extension
The November 13 order prevents the IRF's existing prohibition from expiring on November 14. The organisation remains subject to its unlawful association designation for a further five years, subject to the legal qualification stated in the notification.
India continues to seek Naik's return, while Malaysia's latest stated position remains a refusal to extradite him. No date has been announced for a new extradition decision or for further action on the Interpol request.
The next stated endpoint is November 2031. Until then, the central issues are the continuing restrictions on the IRF in India and the unresolved effort to secure Naik's presence for proceedings there. The government's allegations concern religious hostility, recruitment into terrorism and national security; Naik denies wrongdoing.
Key Points
- India issued a fresh five year ban on the IRF on November 13, 2026, extending restrictions into November 2031.
- The organisation was first banned in November 2016, with renewals in 2021 and 2026.
- The Home Ministry alleges that Naik and the IRF encouraged religious hatred and inspired terrorist acts.
- Naik lives in Malaysia and denies the allegations against him.
- Malaysia says it has received no new formal extradition request beyond the existing process and has made no commitment to surrender him.
- India's effort to obtain an Interpol Red Notice has not succeeded.
