Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has declared that the “oppressive, fascist Awami League”, which he said killed people, committed genocide and carried out repression and has still neither apologised nor shown remorse, will not be allowed to do politics in this country again. He spoke on Friday afternoon (November 6) on the closing day of the two-day 104th annual mahfil of Babunagar Madrasa in Fatikchhari, Chattogram.
“It took 23 years to win Bangladesh’s independence. It took 16 to 17 years to rescue the people of this country from a fascist government hostile to Islam and to religious scholars,” the home minister said. “So many scholars and students were martyred, and not everyone knows their names even now. We do not know where their graves are. Through so much bloodshed we have been freed from a government hostile to Islam.”
“According to the United Nations, 1,400 people were martyred in the July-August mass uprising,” Salahuddin Ahmed said. “Before that, during the 16 to 17 years of the fascists, about 3,000 people were victims of enforced disappearance. I was one of them. The Lord of the worlds kept me alive. I am alive through your prayers and by the mercy of Allah. About 7,000 people were killed or tortured in various ways. Hundreds of thousands were persecuted through attacks and cases. Do we want those fascists to return? Then who is preparing the ground for that today?”
“Behind those trying to create unrest in the garment sector is the hand of that fascist force,” he said.
“There are collaborators in this country who do politics by selling the name of Islam, yet there is nothing close to Islam in their election manifesto,” he added. “They declare themselves an Islamic party, but ‘Aqimuddin’ has been removed from their party monogram. They say one thing, but their documents say otherwise.”
“They have never said in their manifesto that they want Islamic rule,” Salahuddin Ahmed said. “They have never said they want Sharia-based laws in this country or want to introduce Sharia. On the contrary, they have said they are against Sharia-based rule.”
“We believe in Islamic values,” the home minister said. “We added ‘Bismillah’ and recited the Quran. We established the politics of nationalist Islamic values of martyred President Ziaur Rahman. We created a united Bangladesh with all the country’s communities, where we all share one national identity.”
“We never want to see division within the nation,” he said. “Those who do politics by selling the name of religion show no reflection of religion in their work. They only create division in this country. From before independence until after it, they practised misleading politics and created unrest here. They have gone down that road again.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report