Latif Siddiqui sued

Two separate cases were filed on Wednesday against Posts and Telecommunications Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui for hurting religious sentiments of the Muslims. Latif Siddiqui made some derogatory remarks at a views-exchange meeting with expatriates from Tangail in New York on Sunday (Sept 28). Of the two cases against Siddiqui, Advocate ANM Abed Raja, former president of Dhaka Metropolitan Lawyers Association, filed one case while Badal Miah, a hides and skin merchant and resident of Chawkbazar in Mawartek of the capital, filed the other case with the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court. Metropolitan Magistrate Mizanur Rahman recorded the statement of Abed Raja while magistrate Rezaul Karim took Badal Miah’s statement into cognizance. The cases were filed under Section 295(A) and Section109 of Bangladesh Penal Code. At the views-exchange meeting in New York, Latif Siddiqui had reportedly said: ‘During hajj, so much manpower is wasted. Over 2 million people have gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj. They’ve no work, no production and they only cause deduction.’ The minister also said ‘Some 2 million Tabligh Jamaat people get together annually who don’t do any work except halting traffic movement across the country,’ according to a news agency.