By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka
Bangladesh Finance Minister A M A Muhith yesterday ruled out a likely ban on Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami and said such a ban will lead the party activists to go underground to create trouble in the country.
“The Jamaat-e-Islami is an ‘extremist organisation,” said Muhith, as he blamed it for spreading disconcerting rumours about an ‘understanding’ with the government on the war crimes trial.
“They (Jamaat) are spreading such rumours deliberately (to cause confusion amongst pro-liberation and secular forces),” Muhith told reporters yesterday after a meeting with representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Dhaka.
On September 17, the Supreme Court reduced Jamaat leader and war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee’s death sentence to
imprisonment until death.
A faction of the Ganajagaran Mancha, a youth group, started protests after that alleging the Jamaat has come to an understanding with the ruling Awami League to scuttle the war crimes trials.
“Totally rubbish. We discussed this on Saturday. How can Jamaat contact us? It’s them who are spreading this rumour and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is with them as well,” Muhith said.
But the minister admitted that banning Jamaat could have adverse consequences.
“Jamaat can be banned by making a law, but that would create a major problem. They will go underground and start killings; they know how to do that.”
A five-member ADB delegation led by its executive director Maliami bin Hamad met Muhith yesterday.
The finance minister said the discussion focused on the government’s policy, future plans and economic risks.
“They said ‘you are stressing so much on the private sector, but why is the investment not going up?’”
Muhith said that the land allotted for a Korean EPZ (export processing zone) in Chittagong might be taken back.
“They were given 2,500 acres of land in 1996. They have been not able to use even 500 acres of it. They will be given a deadline to utilise the land or else they will have to leave it. Bangladesh cannot afford to waste so much land.”
Asked whether political instability will affect Bangladesh this winter, Muhith said: “Why winter? I do not apprehend political instability at all. And there’s nothing called foreign pressure. Only the US keeps commenting on different issues.”
