Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Dr. Shafiqur Rahman has issued the following statement on 30 August 2019 protesting and condemning the unjustified arrests of 11 party leaders and one activist from Chittagong including party’s central working committee member and Chittagong city Jamaat Ameer Muhammad Shahjahan and Secretary Nazrul Islam.

“The incumbent authoritarian government has been implementing its heinous plan to destroy the leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami and as a part of the same plots, police have arrested 11 party leaders and one activist from Chittagong including party’s central working committee member and Chittagong city Jamaat Ameer Muhammad Shahjahan and Secretary Nazrul Islam. I am vehemently condemning the incident.

Police is conducting ill-campaign and accusing the detainees of plotting anarchy in a bid to harass them politically. Such propagandas are entirely baseless. Police have arrested them without any excuse.

The government has been making conspiracy for last 10 years against the leaders and activists of Jamaat-e-Islami in order to destroy its chain of commands. But their tortures, repressions, crackdown and execution have been proved as futile attempts as the party is still functioning actively by the grace of Almighty Allah. An ideological party can never be eliminated by such oppressions. The government should realize this fact now. Whereas, no oppressor regime can sustain forever by applying the strategies of conspiracies and repression. It can never bring positive result for a government. As such, I am urging the government to learn lessons from the history and to stop its oppression and crackdown immediately. I am also asking them to come back to the path of democracy.

Finally, I am calling upon the concerned authorities to release all the detained leaders and activists including Muhammad Shahjahan and Nazrul Islam immediately.”