Jamaat Amir in Khulna: Two Thousand Given on Cards While Five Thousand Extra Taken in Gas and Electricity Bills; Movement Will Grow Stronger if Referendum Verdict Is Not Honoured

Demanding implementation of the referendum verdict, Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Shafiqur Rahman has said that those who came to government with the people's love and are now disobeying the referendum decision will not have their decision accepted by the people. The movement will continue until the referendum verdict is implemented, and it will gradually be strengthened. If a call is given to go from Khulna to Dhaka, everyone will go, he also remarked.

He made the remarks on Saturday (31 October) afternoon as chief guest at a wayside rally of the 11-party unity's long march, held at Khulna's historic Shibari Mor to press a seven-point demand.

Shafiqur Rahman said those who said before the election that they would implement a Yes victory in the referendum now, after gaining a majority through engineering, say they do not accept the referendum. Seventy percent of voters said Yes in favour of the referendum. Standing in parliament, they said they had accepted those things so that the vote would not be delayed in any way — that is, so that their taking office would not be delayed. Now they have got office, and there is no more talk about the referendum, he said.

Commenting that the current government has done nothing except distribute some cards, the Jamaat Amir said: They are giving one thousand, one and a half thousand, two thousand, two and a half thousand taka on cards. And just from gas bills and electricity bills they are taking five thousand taka extra from us every month. Even then they cannot supply gas, but the bill must be paid. Ghost bills come for electricity. Through these, the nation's money is being robbed, he said.

Criticising the government over the fertiliser crisis, the Jamaat Amir said farmers do not get fertiliser — how would they? New dealers are being appointed by them taking bribes of 20-25 lakh, 30 lakh, 50 lakh, 1 crore taka. There is an uproar over this, and there is infighting among themselves. Lives are being lost, but the farmer does not get fertiliser, he said.

He said they have taken to the field with these demands. They have taken to the field demanding justice for the killers of those who were murdered over the past fifteen and a half years, especially in July, including their beloved Hadi, he said.

Explaining the reasons for joining the movement, Shafiqur Rahman said they have taken to the streets to free a nation vexed by extortionists from the torment of extortion, and to stop the looting of the people's money and its laundering abroad, which has begun. The referendum's popular verdict must be implemented. The clear message is that this time it will be implemented. Until it is implemented, movement programmes will come one after another, moving from strong to even stronger. If necessary, a one-point call will be given. For that, everyone from every home in rural Bengal must be ready to go and appear in Dhaka. Until an exploitation-free, discrimination-free, equitable and humane Bangladesh is formed, their movement will continue, he said.

The wayside rally was presided over by Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman, convener of the 11-party unity's long march implementation committee in Khulna and Amir of Khulna city Jamaat, and conducted by its secretary Sheikh Jahangir Hossain Helal. Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis Amir Maulana Mamunul Haque spoke as special guests.

Leaders of the NCP, AB Party, Jagpa, Labour Party, Chhatra Shibir and other central and local leaders of the 11-party unity also spoke at the rally.