Jamaat for first time announces anti-terror demonstration tomorrow

Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday in a statement announced for the first time that it would hold countrywide demonstrations tomorrow protesting the rise of terrorism and militant attacks in the country.

Meanwhile Assistant Secretary General Miah Golam Parwar in another statement termed false Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal's comment, published in The Daily Star yesterday, that Jamaat's link to the July 7 terrorist attack in Sholakia has been found.

In the first statement, acting secretary general Shafiqur Rahman said there was a panic situation prevailing among people.

He blamed the government for barring the formation of national unity against militancy and urged it to take credible initiatives. 

The party faces immense criticism for its role during the 1971 Liberation War and for its alleged involvement in the terrorist activities.

Pro-BNP professionals and intellectuals recently advised BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to ask Jamaat, a member of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, to apologise to the nation for opposing Bangladesh's independence and the crimes it committed in 1971.

They said it must be done before the alliance moved forward to forge national unity against militancy and that if Jamaat refused, BNP should conduct the movement forming a platform excluding the Islamist party.