The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Jamaat-e-Islami has strongly condemned and protested the arrest of its Ameer Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami in the GATCO scam case.

In an emergency meeting of its central executive council yesterday, Jamaat-e-Islami demanded the government to release all the detained top political leaders, including Khaleda Zia, Sheikh Hasina and Maulana Nizami.

The meeting said the release of all detained top political leaders is necessary for creating a democratic environment to hold free and fair elections with the participation of all parties.

It alleged that the Government arrested its party chief to harass him politically and preventing him from participating in the next elections. "People do not expect such an act of revenge from a non-political government," it said.

The central executive council refereed that Maulana Nizami had run two ministries with efficiency and honesty for five years as a cabinet minister of the four-party alliance government and said nobody could come up with any proof of misappropriation of even only Tk 1 against him.

The meeting chaired by party Nayeb-e-Amir AKM Nazir Ahmed said with the arrest and harassment of the country's top political leaders, the environment for holding the next general elections and government-sponsored dialogue with political parties has been ineffective.