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Ahmadiyya Complex
Body vows to thwart bigots’ siege plan

The South Asian People’s Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism (SAPUFC) yesterday vowed to resist the move by a group of religious fanatics to lay a siege to the Ahmadiyya complex in the capital on August 27.

It decided to mobilise public opinion against the fanatics’ move and organise a massive gathering in front of the Ahmadiyya complex on that day.

“Religious bigots will have to pass over our dead bodies if they try besiege the Ahmadiyya complex,” General Secretary of the SAPUFC Shahriar Kabir said at a roundtable on ‘Attack on religious minority and our responsibility’ held the Jatiya Press Club.

The government alone will have to bear the responsibility if religious bigots to go on with their offensive programme on August 27, he said.

“Religious and ethnic minorities in the country are under thereat of extinction and passing their days in insecurity due to the government’s repressive attitude towards them,” Shahriar alleged.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice KM Sobhan said the government itself is violating human rights and is also encouraging others to follow its path.

Article 40 of the constitution guarantees the right to exercise religious belief independently but the government has failed to uphold this right, he said.

Prof Mir Mobassher Ali said religious bigots would even seek a change in the country’s constitution to declare the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslim. No Muslim country has done this, he mentioned.

“They (religious fanatics) had requested the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) to adopt a resolution to declare the Ahmadiyya as non-Muslim but the OIC did not pay heed to their demand,” Mobassher Ali told the roundtable.

President of the SAPUFC Prof Kabir Chowdhury said all progressive political parties should come forward to make its August 27 programme a success.

A group of people in the name of religion has become active to take the country to backward, he said.

The roundtable was also addressed by journalist KG Mustafa, General Secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous People’s Forum Sanjib Drong, Prof Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir, Prof Nim Chandra Bhoumik, Abu Osman Chowdhury and former ambassador Waliur Rahman.

Meanwhile, different rights bodies and social organisations have served legal notice on the secretaries of the home ministry and religious affairs ministry and the inspector general of police, demanding arrest and punishment of Khatme Nabuwat leaders for planned attack on Ahmadiyya mosques.

The organisations including Ain o Salish Kendra, Bangladesh Legal Aid And Services Trust, Jatiyo Ainjibi Parishad, Kormojibi Nari, Mahila Parishad, Naripokkha, Nijera Kori and Sammilita Samajik Andolon also served legal notice on the deputy commissioners of Dhaka and Khulna .

They demanded immediate steps to protect the religious rights of the Ahmadiyyas and punishment of those responsible for violating their rights.

Khatme Nabuwat defiled of Ahmadiyya mosque in Khulna in presence of police and threatened to besiege the Ahmadiyya complex at Bakshibazar in Dhaka, said a press release quoting legal notice.