“Rizvi should do a self-examination before making accusations against Jamaat about improving relations with India. People know very well who has visited the neighbouring country with a party team and tried to get friendly with India,” reads a Jamaat statement.
Logo of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
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Logo of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
The Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has condemned a remark by BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi where he said the Islamist party “wants to forgive Sheikh Hasina to improve relations with India”.
The statement by Rizvi is “politically motivated, baseless and confusing”, a press statement issued by Jamaat Secretary General Rafiqul Islam Khan reads.
“The public is astonished at Rizvi’s remark. Rizvi should do a self-examination before making accusations against Jamaat about improving relations with India. People know very well who has visited the neighbouring country with a party team and tried to get friendly with India,” reads the statement.
“The politics of Jamaat-e-Islami is against Indian hegemony and fascism. This role of Jamaat has been accepted by the whole nation. And this is probably the cause of Rizvi’s gastritis. We call upon all concerned to desist from such misleading and slanderous politics,” it added.
The Jamaat statement also addressed another comment of Rizvi, who is the senior joint secretary general of BNP.
According to the statement, speaking at an event today, Rizvi pointed to Jamaat-e-Islami and said, “After 5 August, the people have seen incidents of embezzlement by a political party. The people have seen who cuts the veins of the legs [of their opponents]. Jamaat, which opposed [the Liberation War of 1971] is trying to catch fish in muddy waters,'” according to the Jamaat statement.
Responding to the remarks, Jamaat said, “Rizvi has been making such speeches for the last few decades. People have long rejected these statements of cutting the veins, opposing ’71, and fishing in muddy water. What Rizvi wants to achieve by uttering these words against the Jamaat is not clear to the people. Jamaat has never done politics of fishing in muddy waters.”
Rizvi also criticised Jamaat over its policies, saying, “You [Jamaat] do politics using Islam. Islam does not mean repeated hypocrisy.”
Taking a jibe at the remark, the Jamaat press statement said they do not do politics using Islam, they do politics based on the ideals of Islam.
“Jamaat-e-Islami has never done hypocrisy. Jamaat has fought uncompromisingly for the rights of the people, the country, rule of law, justice, human rights and voting rights,” the statement reads.