The Olama League has all along been claiming to be an affiliated body of the Awami League, and issuing media statements and holding programmes using that identity.  

Its men have joined AL leaders and activists during different movements and senior AL leaders quite often have participated in its programmes.

Leaders of the Olama League have got invitations from the Gono Bhaban. They even have a designated office space at the AL headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue.

So, it is really hard to buy AL leaders' claim that the Olama League has no link with the party.

At present, the organisation is split into two feuding factions -- one led by Ismail Hossain bin Helali and the other by Abdul Hasan Sheikh Shariatpuri. 

On April 9, the faction led by Shariatpuri demanded a ban on Bangla New Year festival terming it haram (forbidden in Islam) and urged the government to cancel the festival bonus for Pahela Baishakh, saying the allowance should instead be given to Muslims on the occasion of Eid-e-Miladunnabi. 

It went as far as to demand resignation of the chief justice saying, “A Hindu chief justice in a country where 98 percent people are Muslims is an assault on the sentiment of religious Muslims.”

The faction 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.

The office of Olama League on the 2nd floor of Awami League headquarters on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital. Photo: Collected

Yesterday, The Daily Star photographer was barred from entering the Olama League office on the second floor of the AL headquarters. Later, a guard of locked the entrance to the floor. 

Leaders of both the factions say they want to run the country in line with the Madina Charter. They also cite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's comment on March 7, 2015, that the country would be run according to the Charter and the last sermon and directives of Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH). 

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

On April 10, Abdus Sobhan Golap, office secretary of the AL, said the Olama League was not a front body of the party or a like-minded organisation. So the party does not own the demands of the organisation, he added.

About the Olama League using a floor of the AL central office, Golap said he was not aware of it and he would look into the matter.

AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, on the same day, claimed Olama League had no office at the AL headquarters.

"We don't own the organisation. The Awami League does not believe in religious bigotry," he told The Daily Star.

AL publicity affairs secretary Hasan Mahmud at a press conference at the party president's Dhanmondi office on April 13 said Olama League did not have any affiliation with the ruling party.

“Some people introduce themselves as Olama League leaders. Actually, they don't belong to the Awami League. This is not even a like-minded organisation,” he had said.

The Daily Star called him on Tuesday for his comment about his presence in Olama League programmes, but he did not pick up the call. His phone was found switched off yesterday evening.

Olama League's documents show that many top leaders of the AL, including Golap, Hanif and Hasan, participated in several programmes of that organisation.

Besides, both Helali and Shariatpuri got invitations from the prime minister's official residence Gono Bhaban several times and they met AL President Sheikh Hasina.

Talking to The Daily Star, Shariatpuri said they are making their demands both as Olama League leaders and as Muslims.

"The Awami League is being called a party of Hindus and we are trying to erase this image and this is our prime target," he said.

On another query, Shariatpuri said they would seek an appointment with the PM and lodge complaints against the AL leaders speaking against the Olama League.

“If The Awami League doesn't support me, why did the prime minister send me to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj and made me a Kazi [marriage registrar] and invited me to several programmes.”

Shariatpuri also said he was discharging duties on the directives of the AL high-command.

Accusing his rival, who according to him comes from a family of “war criminals”, he said Helali was an “illiterate man” and had no right to be a part of the Olama League.

Helali, on the other hand, said he was very much against Shariatpuri's demands.

Labelling Shariatpuri as a “paid agent” of Jamaat-e-Islami, he said, "What Shariatpuri is doing is nothing but implementing the agenda of Jamaat."

He claimed his organisation was very much affiliated with the AL.

"But because of Shariatpuri's demands, the party is embarrassed. The Awami League actually does not disown the Olama League," he told The Daily Star at his office on the second floor of the AL headquarters. They were allotted the office in 2012.

"These statements of Awami League leaders are only for the current situation," claimed Helali, who was arrested in 2005 during an anti-government agitation of the AL.

Contacted yesterday, AL religious affairs Secretary Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah insisted the party had no relations with the Olama League whatsoever.

Shahriar Kabir, acting president of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, said the demands made by the Olama League were contrary to the spirit of the Liberation war and the state.

 "The Awami League is tolerating Olama League, which is suicidal for the party," he told this paper last night. 

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.