The Ahmadiya Muslim Jamaat Bangladesh on Tuesday urged the government to ensure security for the Ahmadiyas across the country.

   “We appeal to the government to take measures upholding law and order across the country, especially around the Ahmadiya establishments in Patuakhali and Rangpur,” the organisation’s general secretary Kawsar Ali Mollah said in a news release Tuesday.

   He said the Ahmadiyas in Patuakhali town is unsafe as a section of extremists has announced a programme to lay siege to an Ahmadiya mosque in the morning today.

   Kawsar Ali said the Ahmadiyas in Rangpur were also at risk as they were attacked by religious fanatics on April 29.

   The Barisal correspondent of New Age reports that the Ahmadiyas in Patuakhali urged the district and police administrations to ensure their safety as they were threatened to be evicted Wednesday from their residences, and religious and business establishments. There are about 20,000 Ahmadiyas in Patuakhali.

   The Khatme Nabuwat Andolan on May 6 announced to launch a movement to evict the Ahmadiyas in Patuakhali today and in Chittagong on May 28.

   The organisation will hold a gathering at 10:00am today in Patuakhali Shahid Alauddin Shishu Park to lay siege to the Ahmadiya mosque. The members of the organisation have planned to drive away the Ahmadiyas.

   The Islamic Constitution Movement and the International Khatme Nabuwat Movement jointly observed mass contact in Patuakhali from May 9 to May 11.

   The organisations also circulated leaflets, urging the government to declare the Ahmadiyas “non-Muslim” and ban their activities.

   The chief of the Ahmadiyas in Patuakhali, Shah M Delaware Hossain Dilip, told newsmen that the Ahmadiyas live a peaceful life, without hurting the faith of others.

   The Patuakhali district administration said it would do whatever needed to keep law and order.