Jamaat calls hartal Monday, Hefazat submits memo over state religion

The Jamaat-e-Islami has called a shutdown for Monday, when the High Court is scheduled to start hearing a writ petition on the issue of state religion.
It claimed there was a “deep-rooted conspiracy to rid the country of religion by removing Islam as the state religion,” its acting secretary general Dr Shafikur Rahman said in statement published in the party’s website on Sunday.
The Dhaka city unit of the Hefazate Islam on Sunday submited a memorandum of demands to the miniatry of home affairs demanding stoppage of reported activities initiated to repeal the constitutional provision of Islam being the state religion of Bangladesh.

Hefazat had earlier on Friday issued a strongly worded statement threatening to bring the country to a standstill if the said constitutional provision was repealed. Hefazat has launched an aborted movedment in 1993 against the 15th amendment of the constitution which had deleted the provision of ‘absolute faith in Almighty Allah’.
The amendment on State religion made in June 1988 during the tenure of military strongman HM Ershad inserted Article 2A in the Constitution, giving Islam the status of state religion.
Jamaat programmes of hartal have in recent times weakened because of mass arrest of its leaders during different movements starting from 2013. Its senior leaders are facing the gallows for their roles during the Bangladesh War of Liberation.
Jamaat and its allies however allege that the war crimes trial have been initiated 42 years after the independence of Bangladesh with the objective of weakening the political opposition. – Agencies