Metropolitan

Security for Ahmadiyyas demanded

South Asian People’s Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism (SAPUFC) and Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (EGDNC) in a statement demanded security for Ahmadiyya community of Trishal in Mymensingh whom zealots threatened to attack.

Condemning attacks on Saraswati puja mandaps at different parts of the country and zealots’ threat to Ahmadiyyas, the two organisations expressed grave concern over the situation and demanded arrest of the persons involved.

“The unprecedented repression on minority religious communities that has begun after the fundamentalist-communal-war criminals-dominated four-party alliance government had come to power is yet to stop,” reads a statement signed by SAPUFC President Prof Kabir Chowdhury and EGDNC acting president Shahriar Kabir.

The cadres of the alliance government foiled Saraswati puja in Thakurgaon, Bagerhat and Sirajganj by attacking the mandaps and beat up the organisers, said the statement, quoting reports of newspaper and the two organisations.

Hundred-year-old Kalimela could not be held in some areas of the country and incidents of attack and killings took place at Namsangkeertan function, it said, adding: “There are allegations from different quarters that names of the Hindus are being excluded from the voter list in a planned way.”

“We think all these are parts of a conspiracy to turn Bangladesh into a fundamentalist Muslim country like Afghanistan,” the statement asserted.

The statement further said International Khatme Nabuwat Movement announced that they would attack Ahmadiyya community in Trishal and capture their mosque on February 10.

Over 200 Ahmadiyya families in Trishal are passing their days in utmost panic for the Pakistan-based fundamentalist organisation, said the statement.

“We have seen in the past how the extremist fundamentalists captured and stained Ahmadiyya mosques by repressing them in Satkhira, Chittagong and Patuakhali with government patronisation,” reads the statement.

“We reiterated over the last four years that the continuous torture on religious minorities and the ethnic communities is not only tarnishing government image but also marking Bangladesh as a country of uncivilised people, resulting in apprehension of an unexpected intervention by foreign powers,” it said.

Source: www.thedailystar.net/2006/02/07/d60207061373.htm