Juba League chief sees conspiracy in law minister’s contention on Piash Karim

After Abul Latif Siddique's Hajj rant, Sunday's statement on Piash Karim by Law Minister Anisul Huq is seen as a 'conspiracy’ by Bangladesh Juba League Chairman Omar Faruk Chowdhury.

"You need to be prepared to thwart such possible conspiracies," Chowdhury told a Juba League meeting on Sunday.

"Slowly many a minister is showing his true colour. After AK Khandker and Latif Siddique, Anisul Huq's statement defending Piash Karim could the latest element of a deep-rooted conspiracy," he said.

"We can expect some more such confusing utterances by people close to the government," Chowdhury added.

During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent New York visit, former telecoms minister Latif Siddique rubbished the practice of Hajj and Tabligh Jamaat, provoking a furore in Bangladesh and causing considerable embarrassment to the ruling party.

Later, he was removed from the Cabinet and the party's Presidium and issued a show cause notice on why his primary membership will not be annulled.

Before that, former planning minister AK Khandker triggered a storm with some controversial utterances including what the party felt was a distortion of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's historic speech calling for independence.

Now Law Minister Anisul Huq, who found a place in the Hasina cabinet in his debut as an MP, has defended Piash Karim, known for his anti-Ganajagaran Mancha tirades and severe opposition to the war crimes trials by the International Crimes Tribunal.

Huq on Sunday said Piash had been interned in 1971 by the Pakistani army for circulating pamphlets in support of the Liberation War and that his father MA Karim had to join the Peace Committee to facilitate the release of his son.

Omar Faruk Chowdhury ripped apart Huq's contention.

"Piash Karim has opposed the Liberation War in several TV talk shows. He never believed in the Shaheed Minar."

"Pias Karim was the son of Peace Committee chairman Advocate MA Karim," said the Juba League chief.

The Juba League and Chhatra League, youth and student affiliates of the Awami League, apart from several other student and cultural organisations, had opposed the Piash family's plan to take his body to the Central Shaheed Minar for people to pay their respects.

But facing protests, Dhaka University authorities rejected their plea and Piash's family eventually backed down.

Omar Faruk Chowdhury warned that some in Hasina's cabinet were trying to “provoke a Hindu-Muslim riot in the country”.

He lauded the prime minister's decisions to drop Latif Siddique from her Cabinet and not to ban Khandker's controversial book despite many supporting the idea.