‘Govt will be forced for anti-blasphemy law’

The Hifazat-e Islam on Tuesday asserted that the government will be forced to formulate a new anti-blasphemy law.

The Chittagong-based radical ‘Islamist’ organisation sounded the warning at a press briefing at the port city’s Lalkhan Bazar, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina firmly rejected its demand saying her government had no plans to bring any such law.

Hifazat Nayebe Amir Mufti Ijharul Islam told reporters, “If the Prime Minister respects the people’s mandate, she will formulate the blasphemy law, or else she will be forced to do it.”

“Our 13-point demand is clear. The government has to pay heed to it,” he said at the press conference.

He threatened that no party can ‘stay in power or assume power again’, without their (Hifazat) ‘backing’.

Mufti Ijharul Islam, believed to have links with the Jamaat-e-Islami, urged the government and intellectuals of the country not to put the women in conflict with Islam.

“Islam has always ensured respectability to women. Our movement also aims to restore that.”

On allegations of Jamaat links, Mufti Ijharul Islam claimed that their 13-point demand was not to pursue any political ‘aspirations’.

Reading out from a written text, Hifazat-e Islam’s Organising Secretary Maulana Azizul Haque Islamabadi claimed the government had intervened in their peaceful programme with its ‘patronised miscreants’.

Hifazat-e Islam had enforced a nationwide daylong shutdown on Monday protesting against what they termed as ‘obstruction’ during their long march programme. One person died in clashes in Chittagong’s Patia.

The press conference claimed that 50 Hifazat activists were injured in the port city's WASA intersection and called for the arrest of the attackers.

Hifazat-e Islam Central Joint Secretary General and city committee General Secretary Mainuddin Ruhi, Tazul Islam, Mufti Harun Ijahar and others were present at the press conference.