Kader Siddiqui has ‘apologised to Allah’ for his estranged brother Abdul Latif Siddique, about to be taken out of Cabinet for his comment on Hajj.
Published : 11 Oct 2014, 04:32 PM
“I’ve come with a heavy heart to say that Awami League presidium member, minister Latif Siddique is no one to me. But in the eyes of Allah, he is my elder brother,” he told a press conference in Dhaka on Saturday.
“He has hurt the sentiments of Muslims. So as his younger brother, I urge the Almighty Allah to forgive him.”
Siddique, Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, drew widespread condemnation after rubbishing the practice of Hajj at a programme in New York on Sept 28.
"So much manpower is wasted over the Hajj. Two million people are now in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. They have no work or role in production. They only eat and go abroad using the country’s money,” Siddique was heard saying in a video clip of the programme.
The BNP, Jatiya Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and Chittagong-based group Hifazat-e Islam demanded that he be expelled from government and put on trial for ‘hurting religious sentiments’.
Cases for hurting religious sentiments were filed in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet courts.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Md Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan on Saturday said the process to remove him was ‘complete’.
His brother Kader Siddiqui, Liberation War hero and former leader of Awami League, now heads the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Janata League he formed nearly two decades ago.