Public pressure forced govt to arrest Latif
The government has been compelled to send former minister Abdul Latif Siddique to jail bowing to the public pressure, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said yesterday, a few hours after he accused the administration of creating a smokescreen over the ex-Awami League leader's arrest.
Latif was sent to prison yesterday in cases filed "for hurting religious sentiments of Muslims". Two months ago, on September 28, the former posts, telecommunications and ICT minister commented on Hajj, Tablig Jamaat and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy in New York.
His remarks incensed a section of people, particularly the Islamist groups.
Fakhrul was talking about Latif's arrest at a memorial meeting on Piash Karim, a professor, in the Institute of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital, in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day, when addressing a press conference at BNP chief Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office, he accused the government of trying to gain political mileage by instigating protests by religious Muslims and projecting it as the emergence of militancy and fundamentalism.
Latif came back to the country Sunday night, and soon afterwards, Islamist groups including Hefajat-e Islam threatened hartal for Thursday and a siege to Dhaka if he was not arrested by Wednesday.
Quoting from a report of The Daily Star, Fakhrul said the government was informed of Latif's arrival beforehand but it made a smokescreen over the issue. "Why was not he arrested at the airport?" he said.
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