A Dhaka court yesterday fixed August 27 for submitting a probe report in a case filed against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on charge of calling Awami League a party of atheists.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shamsul Arefin passed the order as Shahbagh police failed to submit the probe report before the court on Tuesday.
The deadline for submitting the probe report has been extended several times by the court as Shahbagh police have failed to submit it on the scheduled dates.
On October 21, 2014, AB Siddique, president of Jananetri Parishad, a pro-Awami League organisation, filed the case with Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court against Khaleda Zia under section 153 (a) and 295 (ka) of the penal code.
According to the case statement, Siddique alleged that Khaleda on October 14, last year, at a function in the capital’s Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh said, “The Awami League doesn’t believe in secularism but in atheism.”
She called the Awami League a party of atheists and alleged that it professed itself to be a secularist part which was nothing but a sham.
Her remarks had hurt the religious sentiment of people, the plaintiff said in his complaint.
At the programme organised to mark the Shubha Bijoya, Khaleda further said secularism is Awami League’s mask and it is the ruling party that attacks religious communities whenever it gets a chance.
Terming the incumbent government a power grabber she further said the ruling party men were torturing the Hindu community across the country.
But the government had not taken any action against them, complainant mentioned in the case statement.
After recording the case statement, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Mustafizur Rahman directed Shahbagh police to investigate the case and submit a probe report before it by November 19 last year.