In a joint statement issued on 20 August, Sylhet District Jamaat Ameer Maulana Habibur Rahman, Sylhet City Nayeb-e-Ameer Dr. Nurul Islam Babul, District Nayeb-e-Ameer Professor Abdul Hannan and Hafez Anwar Hossain Khan, and Sylhet City Secretary Mohammad Shahjahan Ali strongly condemned and protested the false report published on page 4 of Daily Samakal’s 20 August issue titled “42 People Involved in White Stone Theft in Sylhet: ACC Investigation.”

In the joint statement, the leaders said that in the said report, based on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the names of Sylhet City Jamaat Ameer Muhammad Fakhrul Islam and District Secretary Mohammad Zainal Abedin have been deliberately implicated. In reality, they have no connection whatsoever with such incidents. Jamaat leaders, along with leaders of various political parties, had only addressed workers’ programs demanding the reopening of stone quarries through legal means, where the demand was solely for legal quarry operations—not for theft or looting. This statement has been distorted and turned into propaganda. In protest, Sylhet Jamaat has already issued a statement and demanded the arrest and exemplary punishment of the actual culprits.

The leaders further said that apart from Samakal, no other media outlet has published any report claiming that Jamaat leaders’ names were included in the ACC’s report. Even in the previously published list based on intelligence reports, no Jamaat member’s name was mentioned. The addition of Jamaat leaders’ names only in Samakal has shocked and astonished us. We strongly condemn and protest this imaginary, fabricated, and baseless news.

We call upon the concerned quarters to refrain from publishing false, fabricated, and deliberately motivated reports against Jamaat-e-Islami in the future. We also urge the concerned authorities of Daily Samakal to publish this protest statement properly to remove the confusion created in the public mind.