DHAKA: BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday condemned the post, Telecommunications and information technology minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui for his remarks over hajj and religious group Tablig Jamaat.

The spokesperson for the party came up with the criticism in a statement of the party signed by its joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed.

The BNP leader said the remarks of Latif are an extreme attack on the sentiment of the Muslims of Bangladesh as well as elsewhere of the world.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is now staying in London will return home Friday, has reportedly decided to remove Latif as minister.

At a program organized by Tangail Zila Samiti USA Inc. at Jackson Heights in New York on Sunday, he said he was against hajj and Tablig Jamaat more than he detested Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

“Hajj means waste of manpower. Those who perform hajj do not have any productivity. It cuts down the country’s economy, and spends a lot of money abroad,” Latif told his audience in US.

Siddiqui went on saying, those in Tablig Jamaat do not have anything to do but block roads during their congregation called Ijtima.

At the same function, the minister revealed that he does not know PM’s son Sazeeb Wazed Joy. He even asked: “Who is Joy?”

BDST: 1820 HRS, SEP 30, 2014