The daily Star: Jamaat-e-Islami now appears to go on with a revised strategy to take advantage of the month of Ramadan to conduct a countrywide campaign against the government and also the ongoing war crimes trial.
The party opted for organising iftar parties-discussion meetings following its failed bid to launch street agitation in the name of “welcoming holy Ramadan”, sources in the political arena said.
Jamaat and its associated bodies will hold at least 500 such iftar parties across the country till the end of Ramadan where party central leaders will speak as chief guest, according to Jamaat insiders.
Pro-Jamaat student body Islami Chhatra Shibir had earlier tried to bring out processions in different areas of the country on July 19 welcoming the advent of Ramadan that began on July 21. Party leaders alleged that police intercepted the processions everywhere.
Jamaat then revised its strategy and took up the present programme considering it the best way to strengthen the party and to step up the campaign against the government, and detention and trial of its top leaders.
Party leaders including Ghulam Azam, Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed are now in jail and are being tried on charges of war crimes.
Asked about the iftar parties-discussion meetings, Jamaat leader and lawmaker Hamidur Rahman Azad, however, said these are routine activities of the party and all its units. “We always organise such programmes during Ramadan,” he added.
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