Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami’s Acting Secretary General Maulana ATM Masum has issued the following statement on 22nd October 2022 protesting the price hike of the essentials, intolerable load shedding, limitless corruption, money laundering, arrests, and torture against the opposition leaders and activists and simultaneously condemning the police’s obstruction and arrest drives against Jamaat’s peaceful processions arranged in different cities of the country.

Public lives became devastated due to the continuous price hike of the essentials. The prices of commodities reached an intolerable stage due to the corruption of the ruling party leaders and market syndicates. The national economy is ruined due to their money laundering and embezzlement. The government has hijacked the voting rights of the people and destroyed the electoral system. The production activities in the mills and factories became shattered because of load shedding and overall people are facing a tough situation.

Protesting and condemning such irregularities, Jamaat-e-Islami organized peaceful processions nationwide on 22nd October Saturday. By obstructing these processions and arresting Jamaat men, the government has interfered with citizens’ democratic rights. Police barred the processions of Dhaka city south Jamaat. They threatened to open fire and finally arrested several workers from the processions.

Police also obstructed the processions arranged by Mymensingh city Jamaat and subsequently arrested Mymensingh district Jamaat’s secretary Maulana Mozammel Haq.

It is citizens’ constitutional right to hold processions and rallies. By intervening in such rights police have violated the constitution. We want to assert that, a democratic movement can never be subdued through the path of torture and repression. We urge the concerned authority to stop all repression, secure people’s democratic rights, and also to release all the detainees immediately.