Islamist party demands punishment for Latif Siddique

Islami Andolan Bangladesh will protest over three months demanding punishment for former minister Abdul Latif Siddique for his anti-Hajj comments.

Senior Correspondentand Jagannath University Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 5 Dec 2014, 02:21 PM
Updated : 5 Dec 2014, 02:21 PM

The party’s chief Syed Mohammad Rejaul Karim announced the programmes on Friday in Dhaka. The programmes include protest rallies, road marches and mass signature campaign.

Siddique lost his Cabinet berth and Awami League membership for the comments made on Sept 28. He has been accused in a number of cases in Bangladesh for hurting religious sentiments.

He is currently in prison in one of those cases pending further hearing later this month.

Islami Andolan's programmes include countrywide protest marches and rallies, a mass rally in Sylhet on Dec 12 and agitations in all thanas on Dec 25.

It also plans several road marches this month and the next. The party plans a signature campaign in February and will submit a memorandum to the president on Mar 18.

Earlier, the party blocked a stretch of street from Paltan to Dainik Bangla intersections shouting slogans and demanding punishment for the former minister.

After the Jumma prayers, they took to the streets and held a rally at the Paltan intersection, disrupting traffic movement.

Police said the party did not have the permission to hold rally.

Party's Presidium member Tayeb Mohammad Mosaddeque Billah said they were denied rally permission at the Suhrawardy Udyan.

A number of policemen were deployed near the site but they did not foil the rally.

Ramna division's ADC Md Ibrahim Khan said police had managed to keep traffic thin by diverting some of it to alternative routes.

"They did not have permission to hold rally there. But it ended without any untoward incident," he added.