Back hame, Latif stirs rage and rumours

Debates raged the whole day long about Abdul Latif Siddiqui, still facing fire right, left and centre for his anti-Hajj rant 2 months back, after the former telecoms minister returned home on Sunday night. Demonstrations were held and threats to call shutdown made for his arrest from morning to evening on Monday. Political parties in discussions and statements earlier in the day expressed frustration over police’s failure to arrest the 77-year-old politician. To make things even worse for him, several of his colleagues heated up the Jatiya Sangsad in the evening demanding that the ruling party member of the parliament elected from Tangail-4 be stripped of the right to represent the constituency. But the expelled presidium member of the Awami League, who had lost his Cabinet berth and went on to lose the ruling party’s primary membership for his disparaging comment against Holy Hajj and Tabligh Jamaat which he made in New York on September 28, was untraced during the day. His whereabouts are still unknown since he landed at Hazrat Shahjalal (R) International Airport on Sunday night, according to a news agency.