MKA thanks Hefajat

Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir yesterday thanked Hefajat-e-Islam for holding its programme peacefully.
“Hefajat-e-Islam leaders had assured us of holding their programme peacefully. We want to thank them for keeping their promise,” he told journalists after an inter-ministerial meeting at his office.
Alamgir also said the government would consider Hefajat's demands with importance.
But ruling Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif told The Daily Star yesterday the government is committed to fulfilling only its (Hefajat) demand for punishment of those who made insulting remarks on Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM) and Islam in the social media.
“Both the government and the Awami League have been supporting this demand,” he said in his reaction to Hefajat's demands made at the grand rally in the capital.
Hanif, also a special assistant to the prime minister, claimed the government helped Hefajat make their programme peaceful.
The home minister asked Hefajat leaders to remain alert so that BNP-Jamaat could not use them.
Referring to the attack on a make-shift Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee stage at Mohakhali in the capital yesterday, both the minister and AL leader held Jamaat-Shibir men responsible  for this.
Alamgir condemned the attack on a female journalist at Bijoynagar and said, “We are investigating the attack and we will take action against the persons responsible.”
Terming Hefajat's hartal tomorrow and May 5 Dhaka blockade illegal and unnecessary, he said they would be able to stop the programme through discussions.
Replying to a question, Hanif said Hefajat should have also demanded punishment of Jamaat-e-Islami as its founder Abu Ala Moududi was the first person in this sub-continent who had made insulting remarks on Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SM).
He also said they had information that Jamaat-Shibir men would resort to violence centring on the Hefajat programme. “You see while returning from Hefajat's programme, Jamaat-Shibir men attempted to attack Shahbagh Ganojagoron Mancha. They attacked Nirmul Committee Mancha at Mohakhali. Definitely they tried  for more violence but due to government actions, they failed,” he  added.