Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today (28 October 2021) categorically said the present government of Bangladesh is determined to uproot the fundamentalist forces for the sake of greater national interest. “Our goal is to uproot fundamentalist elements in Bangladesh…As a party, Bangladesh Awami League believes in non-communal politics,” he said.
He was responding to a volume of questions after the formal inauguration of “Bangabandhu Sangbad Kendra” (Bangabandhu Media Centre) at Press Club Kolkata (PCK) here this evening. The minister said, “No one in Bangladesh is minority…We don’t believe in such rhetoric…We all are Bangalees…Our causes are common,” he said.
When asked about the recent attacks on different Puja Mandaps in Bangladesh, he said no real Hindus or even Muslims, who believe in religion, can put the Holy Quran at the Puja mandaps. “It is just a political plot created by some rival political parties, those who pursued fundamental politics in Bangladesh, to destabilize the country,” he said adding that the evil forces wanted to kill two birds in a single bullet to gain evil political interest.
The minister said the fundamentalist groups chalked out the plot for creating anarchy in Bangladesh, but they could not be succeeded due to the strong vigilance of the members of law enforcing agencies across the country during the puja festival. “We had been able to foil their conspiracy by guarding the mandaps,” he said and added that the incidents were occurred in only 5-6 mandaps out of 32,000 across the country. In this connection, he said the fundamentalist evil forces are harmful to any country, so steps have to be taken by all concerned to uproot the fundamentalist groups to build a healthy society with communal harmony.
Responding to a question on government measures to stop the violence, Hasan Mahmud, who is also the Joint Secretary of the ruling Awami League, said the government has taken strict measures to bring the perpetrators to book. In this connection, he informed the Indian media that 129 cases have been filed and over 1200 accused have been arrested in charge of attacking the puja mandaps. Apart from this, he said the government has already taken initiatives to repair the mandaps and houses destroyed during the attacks and gave financial support to the victim families.