Ahle Sunnat cancels Saudi embassy siege plans

Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat has cancelled its programme to besiege the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka today after the Saudi government announced that it had no plans to destroy the tomb of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Addressing a media briefing in the city, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat’s central member secretary Mosaheb Uddin Bakhteyar said, ‘Since the Saudi Arabian government has already announced that it has made no such decision or plan, we are withdrawing our programme.’ The tomb of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), one of Islam’s most revered holy sites, could be destroyed and his body removed to an anonymous grave, UK newspaper The Independent reported on Tuesday. Ahle Sunnat on Wednesday sought an explanation from Saudi authorities within 48 hours, without which it said it would lay a siege to the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka on Sunday. On Friday various Middle Eastern news outlets said quoting Ahmed Al-Mansouri, the media spokesman for the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques, that the Saudi government had no plans to destroy the mosque. Madinah’s al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque where the Prophet rests is one of two holiest places for the Islamic faith, second only to Masjid al-Haram which houses the Kaaba. The formal custodian of the mosque is Saudi Arabia’s monarch King Abdullah, according to bdnews24.com.