Keep close vigilance to new platform of Jamaat men: Nasim

Awami League Presidium Member Mohammed Nasim today called upon all people including law enforcement agencies to keep close vigilance to the newly floated political platform of former Jamaat leaders.

“I like to call upon the law enforcers to keep your eyes on them and remain alert about them,” Nasim said while addressing a press conference at the party’s central office at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.

A group of former leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir headed by former Shibir president Mojibur Rahman Monju yesterday launched the new political platform named Jana Aakangkhar Bangladesh.

Coming down heavily on the Jamaat men, Nasim, also the spokesperson of the Awami League-led 14-party alliance, said, “The track record of the Jamaat-e-Islami is very hateful and shocking.”

“I am on behalf of the 14-party alliance like to call upon all the countrymen to remain alert from the Jamaat men,” Nasim said.

Monju, who according to several Jamaat leaders is known to be a hardliner, came up with the move following differences of opinion within the Jamaat over reforms and whether it would apologise to the nation for opposing the 1971 Liberation War.

However, Jamaat-e-Islami in a press statement today welcomed Monju for his initiative in forming the new platform.

The Jamaat, which opposed Bangladesh’s birth, has already been in trouble after its senior leaders were handed down punishment for crimes against humanity. Besides, the Election Commission has cancelled the party’s registration.

Yesterday, in an impromptu reaction, ruling Awami League acting general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said those behind the move were none other than Jamaat men.

“They don’t have any right to do politics even if they change their name and identity,” he told reporters at a programme in the capital.

BNP has met moral defeat     

About the oath of BNP lawmaker from Kurigram-3 parliamentary constituency Zahidur Rahman against the party’s decision, Nasim said BNP has met its political failure and that has been proved through the oath of Zahid.

The BNP leaders elected in the December 30 national election have started coming to the parliament and rest lawmakers are expected to be the part of the parliament, he said.

Claiming that Bangladesh is a country of communal harmony, Nasim said, “We want peace across the globe as religion does not support the killing of innocent people.”

Nasim also underscored the need for unity to resist the acts of terrorism and militancy.