Ban all religious extremist outfits, demands AL rally

Awami League Organising Secretary Abdul Mannan addressing a public meeting held at Shahid Abdur Razzak Park in Satkhira on Friday. PHOTO: STAR

"The BNP-Jamaat government consistently denied existence of Bangla Bhai and his JMJB or any other religious extremist group in the country. Now under the pressure of donors, they have banned only two of the groups.

"This proves that the government had patronised them", Mannan told a public meeting at Shahid Abdur Razzak Park here on Friday.

The AL leader said people of Bangladesh are religious and peace loving. But the country is being branded abroad as a country of religious extremists and fundamentalists because the so-called proponents of Islam are actually misinterpreting the religion, he said.

"Only banning Juma'atul Mujahideen, Bangladesh (JMB) and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) will not free the country from violence by religious fanatics", he said.

He demanded a ban on all other religious extremist groups, saying only this will free the country from violence and politics in the name of religion.

With Shaikh Mujibar Rahman in the chair, the meeting was addressed by, among others, AL central leaders and former lawmakers Begum Mannujan Sufian and Mustafa Rashidee Suja and Panchanan Biswas MP, SM Kamal Hossain, Monsur Ahmed, Nazrul Islam, A Ahmed and Abu Nasim.

"Popular AL leaders, journalists and intellectuals are being killed as part of a blue print to eliminate them only to stay in power ", Mannan said.

None of the criminals who killed former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria, Ahsan Ullah Master MP and journalists Manik Saha and Humyun Kabir Balu has been arrested, he alleged.

The fundamentalist forces are now out to capture state power at any cost and this is an ominous sign for the country, he said and called upon all pro-liberation forces to unite to face them politically.

Other speakers called upon the people to intensify the on-going agitation to topple the "corrupt and failed government" as it could not provide security to people's life and property.

They also criticised the government for price hike of Essentials, fertiliser and fuel during the current IRRI-Boro season.