People are saying—you didn’t lose, you were made to lose: Jamaat ameer

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Shafiqur Rahman has said, “Wherever we are going, people are saying—you did not lose, you were made to lose.”

He made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at a “training camp for upazila shura and executive council members” organised by Sylhet district Jamaat at a community centre in the Mirboxtula area of Sylhet on Friday afternoon.

Referring to the results of the recently concluded 13th parliamentary elections, Shafiqur Rahman said, “This is the first time, Jamaat-e-Islami has an achievement of this scale in parliamentary politics. We express our gratitude to Allah. Now you will say that we have suffered a loss? No, we have gained a lot.”

“The first gain is that for the first time in Bangladesh, a meaningful unity has been formed under the leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami. The second gain is that for the first time Allah has granted us the position of the main opposition party. The third gain is that this time we fought parallel battles against six forces. I do not need to mention all the names; you all understand. In many cases where we were defeated by margins of 10,000–12,000 votes, it was intentional. In two or three places, even after announcements were made, the margin was increased. We observed this even in some sensitive areas,” he added.

Commenting that members of the law enforcement agencies did not take a position against Jamaat, the Jamaat ameer said, “In this election, members of the law enforcement agencies did not openly take a large-scale position against us; rather, in various places when we sought their assistance, they sincerely helped us.”

“People say that our expectations were not fulfilled. Even today, while coming through the airport, people said so. We told them, do not be disappointed. We will continue the struggle for the liberation of the people of Bangladesh,” he added.

Describing the local government election as the second battle, Shafiqur Rahman said, “Now our second battle will begin in the local government elections. In this battle, not a single position should remain vacant. In those places, we want to bring forward the good people from society who risked their lives to stand by us in this election and hand over those positions to them.”

“It is not necessary that our ameer or secretary must hold those posts. For that work, whoever is more beloved by the people, we will present them to the people. We will only look at two things. One is whether the person has patriotism, and the other is whether that person is honest and not corrupt. If we find these two things, enough. Insha Allah, we will be able to give the people of the country something good,” he hoped.