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Mosque Capture Threat
Ahmadiyya leaders demand arrest of zealots

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Bangladesh yesterday appealed to the government to act immediately to resist religious fanatics who threatened to capture an Ahmadiyya mosque in Narayanganj town tomorrow.

Some 2,000 Ahmadiyyas living in the port city are passing their days amidst utter insecurity as fundamentalists under the banner of Aamra Dhakabashi and Khatme Nabuwat Committee threatened to capture Missionpara Ahmadiyya mosque tomorrow in the latest move in a series of such mosque capture and Ahmadiyya-ouster attempts.

Meanwhile, in the face of widespread propaganda by the followers of Aamra Dhakabashi and Khatme Nabuwat Committee, ten cultural and political organisations and professional bodies in Narayanganj have vowed to resist the capture programme.

“The fundamentalists said they would drive us out from the mosque and replace the signboard of our mosque with one identifying it as merely a ‘Place of worship for Kadianis’ (Ahmadiyyas),” local Ahmadiyya leader Rafiuddin Ahmed said at a press conference in Narayanganj Press Club yesterday.

The Ahmadiyya leaders urged law enforcers and civil society members to resist the bigots and save lives and property of the Ahmadiyyas.

They said they could not refute the propaganda and false accusations against them due to ban on their publications.

They reiterated their demand for rescinding the January 8 ban on their publications.

Earlier, the anti-Ahmadiyya zealots replaced the signboards of Ahmadiyya mosque in Patuakhali on May 12, in Chittagong on May 28 and in Khulna on August 13. The new signboards they hung read: “Place of worship for the kadianis” and cautioned people not to mistake those as mosques.

The zealots also declared to capture the Ahmadiyya mosque at its base in Bakshibazar, Dhaka on August 27 but failed as police arrested four of their top leaders ahead of the programme.

The civil society leaders, meanwhile, demanded immediate arrest of the operatives of anti-Ahmadiyya outfits and said they themselves would resist the bigots if the government does not act to this end.

South Asian People’s Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism (SAPUFC), in a letter to State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar testerday requested to arrest the bigots who threatened to capture Narayanganj Ahmadiyya mosque.