The Awami League yesterday reiterated that the Olama League was not affiliated with the ruling party, a day after an Olama League faction came down heavily on some AL leaders for saying their party had no links with the organisation.

“The Olama League does not belong to the Awami League. Our joint general secretary [Mahbubul Alam Hanif] has already clarified the matter on behalf of the party,” Syed Ashraful Islam, general secretary of the AL, said at a press conference yesterday.

“Even after that, if anyone makes any audacious comment, it is up to them,” he said at the programme at his party president's Dhanmondi office in the capital.

On Monday, Abdul Hasan Sheikh Shariatpuri, general secretary of an Olama League faction, termed his organisation a “bridge” between religious Muslims and the AL.

“The organisation is not just a like-minded body of the AL, it is something more than that,” he said at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club.

At present, the Olama League is split into two feuding factions -- one led by Ismail Hossain bin Helali and the other by Shariatpuri.

The group led by Shariatpuri organised the briefing to respond to some “misleading” statements by several AL leaders about his organisation.

Shariatpuri also said the Olama League was not an organisation “out of the pocket of any opportunist or hybrid leaders that it would become extinct, if they denied its existence.”

He said the Awami League leaders, who were saying that the Olama League was an organisation of fraudsters, joined Olama League programmes frequently.

He then showed the reporters at the briefing some photographs where several top AL leaders are seen attending the programmes.

 Addressing Mahbubul Alam Hanif, he said the AL leader “hurt the religious sentiment of several lakh Muslims by terming the Olama League an organisation of fraudsters”.

For the last two years, the Olama League has been holding press conferences, human chains and rallies, claiming to be affiliated with the AL.

The Olama League faction led by Shariatpuri also demanded revoking the minimum marriageable age for girls, making a law with a provision of death penalty for demeaning Islam, banning the CHT Commission, taking all Indian TV channels in Bangladesh off the air and cancelling the education policy and Vested Property Return (amendment) Act.

Leaders of both the Olama League factions say that they want to run the country in line with the Madina Charter, which is contrary to the AL party constitution.

According to the AL constitution, the party is committed to fighting communalism and ensuring religious freedom and human rights for all -- irrespective of religion, caste, gender, community and ethnic identity.

Recently, the Olama League came under fire after the faction led by Shariatpuri demanded a ban on Bangla New Year festival terming it haram (forbidden in Islam).

Later, several AL leaders claimed that their party did not have any affiliation with the organisation.

On April 10, Hanif told The Daily Star, “We don't own the organisation. The Awami League does not believe in religious bigotry."

Three days later, AL Publicity Affairs Secretary Hasan Mahmud said,” Some people introduce themselves as Olama League leaders. Actually, they are not any leader of Awami League and the organisation too is not AL-minded.”

At the press conference on Monday, Shariatpuri claimed that Abdus Sobhan Golap, office secretary of the AL, in November last year said the Olama League was a “tested like-minded body of the AL”.

Talking to this newspaper a few days ago, Golap, however, had said the Olama League was not a front body or a like-minded organisation of his party. “So the party does not own the demands of the organisation.”

According to Shariatpuri, it is not necessary that any organisation has to follow the AL charter completely to be its affiliated body.

He also called Workers Party President and Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon, and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President and Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu “conspirators” and “power greedy”.

Shariatpuri also said like the Chhatra League and the Jubo League, the Olama League should also not be blamed for the wrongdoings of some of its members.

“We're committed to working to strengthen the hands of the prime minister and implement the electoral pledges of the government,” he added.

According to Olama League leaders, the organisation was founded on May 12, 1969, with the name Bangladesh Olama Party following directives of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. At the time its president and general secretary were Abul Khayer and Obaidullah bin Sayeed Jalalabadi.

The party was dissolved after the assassination of Bangabandhu in 1975. In 1997, the organisation revived with Habibullah Kachpuri as president and Kazi Zahir as general secretary.