Hifazat-e Islam has threatened a countrywide shutdown on Thursday, if former minister Abdul Latif Siddique is not arrested by Wednesday. The Chittagong-based Islamist outfit’s Organising Secretary Azizul Haque Islamabadi said that the decision was taken at its central body meeting at a madrasa in Hathazari run by its chief Ahmed Shafi. “A meeting presided over by Hifazat’s Central Amir Allama Shah Ahmed Shafi took the decision,” he said. Former telecom minister Siddique, axed from Cabinet and the Awami League after saying he was opposed to Hajj, returned home by an Air India flight on Sunday night. He has been accused of hurting religious sentiments in a flurry of cases filed across the country after he made the remark in a discussion in New York in September. There are also warrants out for his arrest. – bdnews24.com
