Central Nayeb-e-Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and former member of the Parliament Professor Mujibur Rahman has issued the following statement on 3rd February, 2017 protesting against police’s unjustifiable arrest of 28 pious and decent ladies with religious attires from a house in Mohammadpur of the capital on 2nd February.

“According to the constitution of Bangladesh, every single male and female citizen has the right to hold assembly or meeting and to speak. But the incumbent authoritarian government which has no public mandate, are snatching these basic rights away from the citizen. Some female activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami were discussing the discourse of the Holy Quran and Hadith in a house on 2nd February. But they have been arrested afterwards unlawfully and unjustifiably.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is a legitimate political party of Bangladesh. It can never be supported that the worker and activist of this party is not allowed to seat together. The authority even tries to define an in-house program as a sedition which substantiated that the present government has not popular base. They are not accountable as well as they had not been elected by the general mases. The government is conducting torture and repression against Jamaat-e-Islami. The incumbent authoritarian government has forcefully shut the central and district level offices of the party down for years. They also sent thousands of party activists into the jail. It cannot be tolerated that the ruling party men can hold meeting or gatherings as per their whims but the opposition parties, particularly Jamaat-e-Islami would not be allowed to hold meeting, even an in-house discussion with Quran and Hadith. The government may feel some sorts of satisfaction with such autocratic activities but ultimately all the concerned quarters would face the painful consequence of such brutal repression.

I want to assert that no ideological movement can be subdued by oppression and torture. By arresting the female activists of Jamaat-e-Islami, the government once again proved that they are an undemocratic government.

I am protesting against the ongoing suppression of the government and demanding immediate release of the detained female activists immediately. Besides, I am calling upon the countrymen to form mass resistance against the torture and oppression of the government.”