ARREST OF LATIF SIDDIQUE

The parliament speaker and the state minister for home affairs on Monday made conflicting statements over the provisions under which deposed minister Abdul Latif Siddique could be arrested for making derogatory remarks on hajj and Tabligh Jamaat.Less than 24 hours after Latif Siddique flew in here from Kolkata on Sunday evening, speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told reporters on Monday that permission of the speaker was not required to arrest a lawmaker outside parliament.
But state minister for home Asaduzzaman Khan said at a press briefing at his secretariat office that there were some difficulties in arresting a lawmaker when parliament was on session.Police statements and action on the warrant for Latif’s arrest caused further confusion over the issue although officials at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court made it clear that four arrest warrants had already been sent to two police stations in Tangail and Ramna in Dhaka.Police said they could not arrest Latif Siddiue as they did not have the warrant. They also said they were examining the technical aspects of the matter.

Warrants for Latif’s arrest have been issued by different courts in over two dozen cases for ignoring summons over his derogatory remarks on hajj and Tabligh Jamaat during a visit to the United States two months ago.Asaduzzaman Khan said, ‘It is true that there are court warrants for his [Latif] arrest. At the same time this is also a fact that he is still a parliament member.’He said the speaker’s approval was necessary for arrest of an incumbent MP as parliament was in session.
But Shirin Sharmin disputed the view saying that consent of the speaker was needed only if the police arrested a lawmaker during the assembly or from its vicinity.
A lawmaker could be arrested if there were legal grounds against him or her, she said, adding that police must inform the speaker after the arrest as per Rules of Procedure.Latif Siddique arrived in Dhaka from Kolkata at about 8:21pm on Sunday, two months after staying overseas following his remarks hurting religious sentiment of the Muslims prompting the courts to issue warrants for his arrest for ignoring summons in over two dozen cases.He left the airport through the domestic terminal at about 9:30pm after completing immigration formalities. He was seen being escorted out of the airport by police in plain clothes and intelligence personnel.

Ramna police officer-in-charge Moshiur Rahman said they were looking into whether any warrant had arrived at the police station.Our Tangail correspondent reported that two arrest warrants had reached the Tangail police station for the arrest of Latif Siddique.Confirming the report, Tangail police superintendent Saleh Mohammed Tanvir said, ‘But the warrants did not specify the cases.’Kalihati police officer-in-charge Aslam Iqbal said he had not received any warrant for Latif’s arrest till Monday evening.Tangail’s public prosecutor Akbar Ali Khan said no case was filed against Latif Siddique with the district court.In Dhaka, at least seven cases were filed against the 77-year-old former AL leader. in the seven cases, separate courts had issued four arrest warrants against him on different dates between October 15 and November 24.Abdul Latif Siddique, who was elected lawmaker for Tangail-4 constituency for the fourth term, used 20, Hare Road in the capital’s Ramna as his present address and Kalihati upazila in Tangail.

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