Bangladesh Jamaat Leaders Held on Anti-Muslim Charge

Bangladesh police have arrested three top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's biggest Islamic political party, on charges of insulting Muslims’ religious beliefs.

The secretary general of the Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, another religious group, filed a case on March 21 in court, saying that Jamaat leaders had compared their party's chief with the Prophet Mohammad while speaking at a party meeting.

Police said those arrested include the party chief and his deputy.

[Hamidur Mujahid, Member of Parliament]:
"The government is now mad. They have arrested our leaders. They just have arrested our leader Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami. The police could not show any papers."

Jamaat is a political ally of the opposition Nationalist Party led by former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia.

Many Bangladeshis accuse Jamaat of collaborating with the Pakistani army during the 1971 independence war. The party in turn has accused the government of Sheikh Hasina of trying to curb its activities using war crime charges and is likely to see the arrests as a ploy to push that effort.