Latif Siddique surrenders, whisked to court

Ousted Awami League leader Abdul Latif Siddique surrendered to the Dhanmondi police station this afternoon, to respond to demands by the Islamist parties that he be arrested soon or the nation would face shutdown on Thursday.He was taken to the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Atiqur Rahman around 2:00pm.A good number of policemen have been deployed in and around the court premises to avoid any unwanted situation.Latif is wanted in more than a dozen of cases for his irreligious remarks that he made in New York City on September 28.Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh, on Monday threatened to enforce a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Thursday if former minister and ousted Awami League leader Abdul Latif Siddique was not arrested by Wednesday.

A newly floated political party, National Democratic Front, led by Shawkat Hossain Nilu, at a press conference at the National Press Club also gave the government until 11:59pm Monday to arrest Latif Siddique or he threatened to enforce a dawn-to-dusk general strike today.Deposed posts and telecommunications minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui, also a former policymaker of AL, who is wanted by more than a dozen courts across the country for making derogatory remarks on the Prophet(SM), hajj and Tabligh Jamaat, returned home on Sunday after two months but the police did not arrest him.The arrest warrants were issued by different courts as he did not respond to the court summons for hurting religious sentiment.Hefajat-e-Islam Bangladesh at a meeting at Darul Ulum Muinul Islam madrassah at Hathazari in Chittagong on Monday gave the ultimatum to arrest Latif Siddique, its leader Maulana Monir Ahmed told reporters.Islami Oikya Jote leaders also issued similar threat.

After a protest march in the city, the party’s chairman Abdul Latif Nejami told a rally that the party would enforce hartal to uphold the dignity of Islam and Muslims.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in a statement on Monday strongly protested at the government’s not arresting Abdul Latif Siddique despite having arrest warrants against him.In the statement, Jamaat’s nayeb-e-amir Mujibur Rahman, also a former lawmaker, urged the government to arrest the former minister immediately.
Latif Siddique drew condemnation after making derogatory remarks on Islam, its Prophet (SM), hajj and Tabligh Jamaat at a programme in New York on September 28.He said, ‘I am dead against hajj and Tabligh Jamaat. I am more against hajj and Tabligh Jamaat than Jamaat-e-Islami. It is sheer waste of manpower [and money]. Some 20 lakh people have gone to Saudi Arabia. They have no work to do there. It is deduction [of money] rather than production. They are spending and consuming. They are taking the country’s money to Saudi Arabia.’He also said that ‘Abdullah’s son Muhammad’ had introduced hajj as a means of livelihood for Saudi Arabians who, he said, were ‘robbers’.

- See more at: http://newagebd.net/70252/latif-siddique-surrenders-whisked-to-court/#sthash.uMtlyz4O.dpuf