Religious conversion via gaming app? What UP police said about modus operandi

According to the police, the gang's modus operandi was to target children through an online game.

The ministry of home affairs and the Uttar Pradesh government have reportedly sought a detailed report on the alleged use of online gaming applications to target impressionable young minds and lure them into changing their religion. This comes after the UP police arrested one person in connection with the alleged use of an online gaming application to target children and teenagers for religious conversion.

UP police said it has busted a conversion racket targeting young and impressionable minds.(Pexels)

The governments at the Centre and state have taken cognizance of the matter and an investigation is underway to find out how many children have converted to another religion as a result of the “gang's modus operandi,” reported HT's sister publication Live Hindustan.

On Sunday, a cleric at a mosque in Sanjay Nagar area in Ghaziabad was arrested. Police said a manhunt has been launched to nab the second accused, who hails from Thane in Maharashtra.

"On May 30, a case of religious conversion was registered at Kavi Nagar Police Station, in which two people were named and were identified as Shahnawaz Khan alias Baddo, a resident of Thane, Maharashtra and Nanni alias Abdul Rehman, a Maulvi at a mosque in Sanjay Nagar area. Rehman has been arrested," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Ghaziabad, Nipun Agarwal.

"During an investigation, the role of Rehman in the conversion of a minor Jain boy and two Hindu boys was found and police have seized electronic evidence and affidavits related to it," the DCP of Ghaziabad City said.

According to the police official, the online game required users to recite verses from the Quran in order to win. The teenage gamers were also shown videos of radical Muslim preachers Zakir Naik and Tariq Jameel.

Naik, an accused in numerous cases related to money laundering and spreading hatred, fled the country in 2016.

"The accused also used to talk with the gamers (children) through a chat application and there they were shown videos of Zakir Naik and Tariq Jameel to persuade them to convert," DCP Ghaziabad City said.

The DCP said a team has been sent to Maharashtra to nab the accused Shahnawaz Khan. Further investigation is underway.

(With ANI inputs)