Khelafat Majlis has left the 11-party alliance led by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
The decision was announced from a meeting of the party’s central Majlis-e-Shura at noon on Saturday, July 25. The meeting was held at the Majlis office in Purana Paltan in the capital.
Under the meeting’s decision, Khelafat Majlis will from now on stay away from all programmes of the 11-party alliance. If the need arises in future to build a broader unity, however, it will consider the matter.
The decisions were announced after the meeting in a statement signed by the central publicity secretary of Khelafat Majlis, engineer Abdul Hafiz Khasru.
The statement said: “The 11-party unity was essentially an electoral understanding. With the election over, the effectiveness of this unity has in fact ended. Even so, Khelafat Majlis took part in some 11-party programmes after the election. From now on Khelafat Majlis has decided to stay away from all programmes of the 11-party unity. If it is needed in future for the country, the nation and Islam, efforts to build a broader unity will continue.”
Earlier, after the alliance’s divisional rally in Chattogram on June 13, Khelafat Majlis had formally told the alliance that the party’s name and its leaders’ names should not be used on banners or in publicity for any rally. When the name was later used at a rally in Rangpur, it was withdrawn in the face of objections. Since then the name of Khelafat Majlis has not been used in any alliance programme, party sources said.
Discussion has recently begun anew over the political position of Qawmi-stream Islamic parties. Since a meeting of leaders of several Qawmi-stream Islamic parties on the initiative of Hefazat-e-Islam Amir Allama Muhibbullah Babunagari, various speculations have arisen in political circles about the future of the 11-party electoral unity. Khelafat Andolon has already announced its departure from the 11-party unity. Khelafat Majlis has now taken the same path. Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, led by Maulana Mamunul Haque, however, remains in this Jamaat-led alliance.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report