National

Ahmadiyyas worried as Khatme Nabuat eyes Satkhira-5 JS seat

The International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh (IKNMB) may field a candidate in Satkhira-5 (Shyamnagar) in the coming parliamentary election, posing a threat to the 4-party alliance in the constituency, sources said.

On the other hand, members of Ahmadiyya community are also worried, apprehending fresh trouble if Khatme Nabuat nominates a candidate in the area, they said.

Bigots belonging to Khatme Nabuat attacked Ahmadiyya community members on several occasions in the past and laid a siege to the Ahmadiyaa complex at Jyotindranagar in Shyamnagar upazila on April 17 last year. At least seven attacks were made since last year, sources said.

In 2001 election, Jamaat leader Gazi Nazrul Islam won the Satkhira-5 seat as a 4-party alliance candidate. He got 84,613 votes against Awami League candidate Principal Abdul Haque’s 56,554.

Khatme Nabuat members are pasting posters at different public places through out Shyamnagar upazila, urging their Ameer Mufti Noor Hossain Nurani to contest the coming election from the seat.

The colourful posters are being published and pasted by a newly floated organisation styled Nyaibichar and Adhikar Banchita Vote Sachetan Sangrami Janata (a forum of deprived vote-conscious people).

The posters read: People of Shyamanagar upazila want to see Khatme Nabuat chief Mufti Noor Hossain Nurani as MP to establish justice for underprivileged people.

Besides, local leaders of Khatme Nabuat including its chief Mizanur Rahman, Zindagir, Jahangir, Mazid Maulana and Abdul Wadud are campaigning for their candidate, sources said.

The religious bigots may pool many voters, mostly of Jamaat supporters, political analysts said.

Jamaat leader former lawmaker Gazi Nazrul Islam, if nominated in the coming election as a four-party candidate, will have to face a tough fight in the next election if Nurani contests the election because his votes will be divided, they said.

On contact, Ahmadiyya Jamaat’s publicity secretary Zillir Rahman said the religious bigots attacked and ransacked Ahmadiyyas’ houses on April 17 last year.

“They also confined us at homes for about a month last year and tore down signboard of our mosque”, he alleged.

“Seeing the posters, we feel insecure fearing fresh attack on us. The bigots are trying to regroup to launch fresh agitation to declare us non-Muslims. They may make it an election issue”, he added.

Contacted over cellphone yesterday, Abdul Awal, chief of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Bangladesh, said Khatme Nabuat has started a ‘nasty politics against Ahmadiyya Jamaat only to become a lawmaker by misleading people’.

Talking to this correspondent, Noor Hossain Nurani said, he wants to contest the next election to go to parliament to talk against terrorist activities and widespread corruption by immediate past BNP-Jamaat government.

He claimed that members of Ahmadiyya community will also votes for him to ensure their safety.

Ahmadiyya community leader Zillur Rahman however refuted his claim, saying, “The question of casting votes for him by us does not arise at all”.

Jamaat leader and former MP Gazi Nazrul Islam said, Khatme Nabuat will not be able to woo voters and so Noorani will not be a factor in election for Jamaat.

Source: www.thedailystar.net/2006/11/27/d61127070199.htm