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Published : 23 Sep 2025, 07:56 PM
The Jamaat-e-Islami has protested BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s remarks, in which he suggested the party’s recent demand for proportional representation voting was a strategy to pressure the BNP.
In a recent interview with Kolkata daily Ei Samay, Fakhrul said Jamaat had asked BNP for “30 seats”. In response, BNP proposed “far fewer”, which did not satisfy Jamaat.
“We will not let Jamaat sit on our heads again. However big or small they are as a force, we have unnecessarily given them more importance,” Fakhrul said.
On Tuesday, Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar issued a statement: “It is hard for us to believe that a senior politician like Fakhrul has made such completely false, disrespectful, and vindictive remarks. These words are devoid of both truth and courtesy.
“If the remarks are indeed his, we are compelled to condemn and protest. At the same time, if these are his words, we call upon him to clearly present proof before the nation of when and to whom Bangladesh Jamaat made such demands for seats.”
Porwar said Jamaat operates “naturally under its central leadership” and has “absolutely no connection with seeking seats from anyone in present times”.
“If he fails to present evidence supporting his statement, we call upon him to accept the truth and at least apologise publicly before the people,” Porwar added.
In the interview, Fakhrul said: “PR is a strategy to pressure BNP. Jamaat is preparing for elections, announcing candidates in different places.”
When asked by Ei Samay whether he agreed with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s claim that February’s polls and government formation would happen without Indian influence, Fakhrul replied: “India was an ally in the Liberation War. It sheltered 10 million refugees. Geographically, Bangladesh is surrounded by India on three sides, with the sea on one. So India’s influence will always remain. The problem is, India’s rulers have equated Bangladesh only with Awami League.
“Following Awami League’s line, India has wrongly bracketed the BNP with Jamaat. But our politics are not the same. We are a non-communal, centrist democratic party. We are still fighting the anti-liberation forces to uphold the Constitution earned in 1971. The leftists are with us.”
In its statement, Jamaat said Fakhrul’s disparaging language was an affront to the party’s political standing.
Porwar said, “We leave the judgment to the people’s court, in whom we have full trust. Our activities are for the nation and its people. Our ultimate aim is to earn the pleasure of Almighty Allah. We urge him to refrain from such false and misleading remarks in future.”
