Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman on Sunday challenged BNP over what he described as the nomination of “59 notorious loan defaulters and bank looters”, questioning how the party could claim it would curb corruption while seeking to make them members of parliament.
He made the remarks while addressing an election rally as the chief guest at the DIT Project playground in Badda in the capital.
The rally was organised in support of National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam, the Dhaka-11 candidate of the 11-party electoral alliance.
Without specifying, Shafiqur said there was a certain party that has repeatedly promised to clamp down on corruption if it came to power – a clear reference to their primary rivals in the election.
“Good intentions should start at home,” he said, adding that nominating alleged bank looters stood in direct contradiction to the party’s claims.
Referring to the events of 2024, the Jamaat chief said the legitimate demands of the youth had been suppressed by fascistic forces.
“On 36 July, that is, 5 August, the nation was freed from Awami barbarism. But from the morning of 6 August, a section again became involved in extortion, land grabbing and case trading,” he said. “You were once oppressed; do not become oppressors yourselves. Why do you make people suffer now?”
He alleged that businesspeople were being held hostage, claiming that individuals who had lived safely abroad for 15 and a half years had returned to the country, filing politically motivated murder cases and extorting hundreds of crores of taka in the process.
“These crimes have not stopped since 6 August. Even beggars on the street are being forced to pay,” he said.
Addressing voters in Dhaka-11, Shafiqur said 12 February would be a day to repay a “debt of blood”, adding that young people have made it clear that they no longer wanted what he called “old and rotten politics”.
Jamaat wanted to hand responsibility to the youth, he said, rejecting unemployment benefits and welfare in favour of job creation.
Describing the promise of rice at Tk10 per kg as “fake”, he urged voters to show a “red card” to existing “card” schemes – yet another indirect reference to BNP.
He pledged that if a justice-based government was formed, no one – including the president and the prime minister – would be above the law, vowing an all-out effort to recover money looted and siphoned abroad.
The Jamaat ameer also revealed that, if voters backed the vision of a justice-based Bangladesh, Nahid Islam would be given an important cabinet position.
“We will let young people such as Nahid be the pilots and while we sit in the back as passengers. The youth will not disappoint us,” he said.
Leaders of the 11-party alliance, including Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis Ameer Maulana Mamunul Haque, also addressed the rally.
The programme, which began at 9am, drew supporters of Jamaat and the NCP alongside members of the public. The Jamaat ameer also joined several street meetings across four electoral areas in Dhaka throughout the day.
