Front Page

Yet another warning in Sarishabari
Staff Correspondent

An anti-Ahamadia outfit at Sarishabari in Jamalpur yesterday gave the government a one-week ultimatum to declare the members of the sect non-Muslims in an echo of a similar action in Dhaka on Friday.

An anti-Ahamadia mob tore down the tin-roofed mosque and threatened followers of the sect with arson if they did not leave the area. The attack came amid some sporadic anti-Ahamadia incidents elsewhere. The anti-Ahamadias caught a believer of the sect at Garorbazar in Ghatail, Tangail on Friday and forced him to put his signature to a statement that he would not follow the Ahamadia rituals anymore. Another group of fanatics assaulted an Ahamadia man at Dharmapur in Madarganj upazila in Rangpur on November 28.

About 1,000 demonstrators under the banner of Hifazate Khatme Nabuwat Andolon went to the upazila administrator’s office in procession from Alia Madrassah in Aramnagar Bazar shouting anti-Ahamadia slogans to submit the memorandum to him calling for the declaration.

On Friday, a fanatic group in Tejgaon in Dhaka gave the government a one-week ultimatum to declare followers of the Ahamadia sect non-Muslims from a hate-filled demonstration of over 30,000 people.

“I have heard that anti-Ahamadias brought out a procession and submitted a memorandum to the TNO (thana nirbahi officer) today demanding declaration of the Ahamadias non-Muslims,” Jamalpur Deputy Commissioner Shah Alam Bakshi said.

“No untoward incident took place there as the district authorities took special security measures,” the DC said.

The demonstration came in the wake of an attack on the Ahamadia mosque at Balardiya on Wednesday, striking panic into over 1,500 people of the sect in Sarishabari many of whom fled their homes after the incident.

An anti-Ahamadia mob tore down the tin-roofed mosque and threatened followers of the sect with arson if they did not leave the area. The attack came amid some sporadic anti-Ahamadia incidents elsewhere.

The anti-Ahamadias caught a believer of the sect at Garorbazar in Ghatail, Tangail on Friday and forced him to put his signature to a statement that he would not follow the Ahamadia rituals anymore.

Another group of fanatics assaulted an Ahamadia man at Dharmapur in Madarganj upazila in Rangpur on November 28.

The Khatme Nabuawat announced a series of programmes for what they said was to force the government to declare the Ahamadia non-Muslims and dislodge them from their mosques.

Although no violent incident took place at Nakhalpara in Dhaka yesterday, the Ahamadias were reeling under insecurity.

A platoon of police guarded the sect’s mosque there and another platoon took position near Nabisco in Mahakhali.

“We have no-one to ask for security other than the government,” Tarek Mobasser, a spokesman for the sect, said last night.

“As citizens of the country, we abide by the law and want to observe Islamic rituals and follow the teachings of Prophet Mohammad (SM).”

“We have no reason to leave our mosque and the country as we are neither violating any law of the land nor hampering the lives of people of other sects,” he said.

From Friday’s demonstration at Nakhalpara, the Nabuwat Andolon announced demonstrations at the Baitul Mokarram National Mosque on December 9, in front of the National Press Club on December 12, at Tongi on December 19, at Paltan on December 23 and at Jatrabari on December 26.

The Nabuwat Andolon leaders said they would go for tougher agitation if their ultimatum went unmet.