Hefazat-e Islam has demanded the rejection of the writ petition filed with the High Court challenging the legality of the constitutional provision that gives Islam the status of state religion.
Hefazat's Secretary General Junaid Babunagari came up with the demand in a press conference held at Chittagong Press Club on Monday morning.
He said: “Atheism will be established in the country if Islam is dropped as the state religion of Bangladesh. Such step will hamper the sovereignty and peace here [Bangladesh].”
Meanwhile, the party declared to stage a countrywide protest against the "conspiracy" of dropping Islam as the state religion from the constitution on March 25.
On February 29, the High Court fixed March 27 for hearing the writ petition filed by 15 distinguished citizens 28 years ago in 1988.
The High Court heard the petition for the first time in 2011 and issued a rule against the government. However, the government did not respond to the rule.
The same year, the parliament passed a bill on the 15th amendment of the constitution that retained the status of Islam as the state religion.
The amendment also restored secularism as one of the four fundamental principles of the state.
In 2015, the petitioners' counsel Jaglul Haider Afric applied to the chief justice asking the High Court to hear the writ now.
