Hefazat-e-Islam Ameer Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi and his close associates have put a Tk5 lakh bounty on the head of former telecom minister Abdul Latif Siddique for his derogatory remarks on hajj and Tabligh Jamaat, according to an intelligence report.
The report was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office late last month and officials there forwarded it to the police headquarters via the Home Ministry, said police sources.
The bounty, the report read, was set during a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia on October 11.
Shafi held the meeting with Madhupur Pir Maulana Abu Hamid, Maulana Tajul Islam, Maulana Sajidur Rahman, Abul Hasnat Aminee, Mawlana Shafiuddin, Mawlana Ataullah and about 100 other top Hefazat leaders at Kakiah of Mecca from 9pm till midnight on October 11, according to the report.
The venue of the meeting was so secret that it was changed twice or thrice and the agenda included the organisation’s activities, future plans and the Latif Siddique issue, it said.
Shafi told the attendees not to pay heed to rumours about his financial condition and also that of his family members.
“I am not into partisan politics. I, along with my followers, am working to protect Islam, religious values and norms which is a kind of politics, and that is what I do,” he said.
The Hefazat chief said he does not work to support the Awami League or the BNP. He said there would be protests against any attack on Islam, regardless of the person making the attack.
“Hefazat does not care which party gets advantage and which does not as we do not work for anyone,” said Shafi, according to the report.
Home Ministry Senior Secretary Dr Mohammad Mozammel Haque Khan said he could not recount anything about the report while Joint Secretary Mustafizur Rahman said he was outside the country when the report arrived at the ministry.
Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmud Khandaker, who is now in Monaco to participate in an Interpol conference, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone that he would look into the matter after returning home and suggested talking to Additional Inspector General of Police (administration) AKM Shahidul Haque Khan.
Shahidul, however, refused to talk, saying he was busy.
Hefazat Organising Secretary Azizul Haque Islamabadi denied any closed-door meeting but said Shafi had met a few leaders of the organisation, who were in Mecca and Medina, during his stay in Saudi Arabia for hajj last month.
“They chiefly talked about organisational issues. When Latif Siddique became the subject of the discussion, our ameer said Hefazat would go for stern protests if the government did not take any action against the former minister,” he said.
“Hefazat is not against the law of the country and we do not flout the law,” he said, adding that any report claiming closed-door meetings in Saudi Arabia was fabricated.
Hefazat ameer’s son Anas Madani, who was with his father during hajj, refused to comment on the intelligence report despite repeated calls.
Latif drew flak for his comments on hajj that he made while addressing a programme arranged by the expatriates from Tangail in New York in late September.
His derogatory remarks stirred up widespread criticism both at home and abroad. The government removed him from the cabinet on October 12 and also expelled him from the party afterwards.
