How BNP-Jamaat candidates trade religion: Fatwa says listening to militant speeches worthy of performing Hajj

BNP-Jamaat leaders always try to deceive ordinary religious-minded people using fabricated sermons. They even hit one of the main pillars of Islam, Hajj, issuing an extremist fatwa guided by Khaleda Zia.

The Janakantha reported on September 8, 2001, that the BNP-Jamaat alliance nominated Taliban militant Mufti Shahidul from the Narsingdi-2 constituency for the election against the then-outgoing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Shahidul is a close friend and second in command of Mufti Hannan, the leader of the banned militant outfit Harkat-ul Jihad, who carried out a bomb attack to kill Sheikh Hasina in Kotalipara. He was locally known as an extremist militant.

During the election campaign, Shahidul made derogatory comments about Sheikh Hasina. He used to give armed training to the camp in Cox’s Bazar in collaboration with the Taliban commanders from Pakistan and Afghanistan. This Taliban militant started campaigning and threatening the local people before the election.

He brought a huge number of pro-Taliban madrasa students from all over the country to Narsingdi. They openly chanted slogans: "We will be Taliban, Bengal will be Afghan." They went to Hindu-dominated villages and threatened the minorities. As a result, the people of the entire area became afraid.

In the speech, militant leader and BNP-Jamaat candidate Shahidul said that there are Taliban in Dhaka. If necessary, they would be brought to Narsingdi. Swearing by God, he started making obscene and extremist speeches about Bangabandhu, Bangladesh's independence, Sheikh Hasina, and the Constitution in public meetings. Although the local Muslims condemned his speeches, no one could protest them out of fear.

Mufti Shahidul set up an NGO called Markazul Islam on Babar Road in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, from where they supervised militant training in the name of the Rohingya development program in Cox's Bazar. They used to collect a lot of funds from abroad. Also, they arranged armed training in the deep forests of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border under Pakistan's radical militant commanders, Salim Sherku and Mufti Hannan.

Khaleda Zia nominated the terrorists who tried to kill Sheikh Hasina in 2001. Similarly, she nominated the killers of Bangabandhu in the controversial elections of 1996. Even later, in 2004, Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman sent Maulana Tajuddin, who led the grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina, to Pakistan secretly. The terrorists, arrested during the non-partisan caretaker government, admitted that Tarique provided all the logistical support for carrying out the attack. Khaleda Zia said Sheikh Hasina had carried the bomb in her vanity bag. Khaleda Zia also staged drama with Joj Mia to divert the incident.

Even before the 1996 elections, Khaleda Zia openly campaigned that Islam would disappear from the country if Awami League was voted for. Voting for BNP-Jamaat means serving Islam and confirming tickets to heaven. They would spread such rumors among ordinary religious people in villages. But Bangabandhu established the Islamic Foundation, ensured Hajj pilgrims, allotted space in Tongi for Biswa Ijtema, banned gambling, and announced a vacation for the Muharram, etc. Later, Her Excellency the Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina set up model mosques and Islamic libraries across the country, launched monthly special allowances for imams and muezzins, allotted funds and space for the development of madrasas, and mainstreamed madrassa education.

Meanwhile, the BNP-Jamaat alliance government and their sponsored extremist groups have orphaned thousands of families by involving ordinary people in militancy. What did they do other than kill people mercilessly, injure thousands of families with bullets, bombs, and petrol, make thousands of families orphans, hold people hostage and extort them, and make a blueprint to seize power? So, will you cast your vote for these religion traders? Religion speaks of peace; a pious person never speaks indecently, never harms others, and never incites vandalism. It is high time to reject these barbaric murderers and demons.