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The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
leaders with a foreign intelligence agency in Nepal "to destabilise the country," Awami League leader Tofail Ahmed alleged yesterday.
Two groups of opposition leaders have met the intelligence agency officials several times in Nepal recently, he claimed.
Tofail was speaking at a meeting of the AL-led 14-party ruling alliance at the AL central office in the capital's Bangabandhu Avenue.
On Sunday, a series of homemade bombs went off in central Dhaka as hundreds of activists of BNP and Jamaat clashed with police, smashed more than a dozen vehicles and set some of those on fire.
A 24-year-old youth was killed in a bomb kaboom in the capital's Motijheel while another man died when some unruly people torched two vehicles in Sylhet, police said.
The government and the opposition blamed each other for the incident.
Leaders of the alliance yesterday alleged that BNP Chairperson
Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
was out to create instability in the country to bring an evil force to power through unconstitutional means and to save her "corrupt" sons and the war criminals.
The meeting decided to form committees in 100 wards and 19 unions in the city soon to resist the "subversive activities of BNP and Jamaat to protect the war criminals".
It also decided to organise a mass gathering at Suhrawardy Udyan in the city later this month to drum up public support in favour of the war crimes trial.
BNP and its key ally Jamaat are detached from the people, and are trying to foil the trial of the war criminals by creating unrest, they said.
Speaking as the chief guest, veteran AL leader Amir Hossain Amu said the war crimes trial was a national issue and that the 14-party alliance would prevent all the BNP-Jamaat conspiracies to hinder it.
Khaleda is against the ideology of the freedom fighters. Therefore, freedom fighters involved with BNP politics should quit the party and join the "progressive forces", he said.
AL acting general secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and party leader Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya also spoke on the occasion.