Jamaat ameer warns of ‘befitting reply’ to attacks on party leaders

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman on Tuesday warned that any deliberate harassment or attacks on the party’s leaders and activists would not go unanswered.

He accused a rival political party of hypocrisy for distributing family cards while allegedly attacking women.
“Many now want to put on the apron of old fascism. Don’t show your black hands again. If you pick a quarrel deliberately with us, we will not let it go unchallenged, we will respond befittingly,” he said addressing an election rally in Khulna.

If the Jamaat-led 11-party alliance formed the next government, closed mills and factories would be reopened, new industries established and local problems resolved through dialogue with residents, he said.

Urging voters to support the alliance and vote “yes” in the referendum, he then said the country’s people had stood by Jamaat members even at great personal risk during the years of autocratic rule and would do so again. 

He told supporters that Jamaat felt indebted to the public for their past support and intended to repay that trust by ensuring overall welfare if elected.

He added that women, along with their land and property, would be safe under Jamaat’s stewardship.

Recalling violence and unrest following the political changeover of 5 August 2024, Shafiqur claimed Jamaat members had acted as sentinels, protecting lives, property and the dignity of women, something he said no other political party had done.

He argued that voters had already tested other parties in the past and now should give the 11-party alliance an opportunity by placing it in state power through the election.

Later, speaking at a separate election rally in Jashore, the Jamaat ameer vowed to bring an end to dynastic politics and introduce what he described as a new political culture if his party came to power. He promised infrastructure development in the district, including upgrading Jashore to a city corporation, establishing a 500-bed hospital at Jashore Medical College and improving transport and public facilities.

He said dynastic politics would reach its end under a Jamaat-led government and pledged to replace what he called the rotten practices of the past with a new political order aimed at serving the country’s 18 crore people.