National

Jamiyatul Ulama issues fatwa against ‘religious killing’

After a recent flow of targeted killings and attacks, Bangladesh Jamiyatul Ulama has issued a fatwa against the killer who killed non-Muslims, members of minority groups and secular campaigners in the name of Islam.The announcement of the fatwa on Saturday by Farid Uddin Masuod, head of the Council of Bangladesh Clerics and Jamiyatul Ulama at Press Club.He said, militants will not get involved in the act of killing people out of the aspiration of reaching to the heaven, once they will realize that it is a path of hell, not heaven.‘These fanatic militants are not only enemies of Islam and Muslims but also the enemies of humanity,’ he said.Masuod said that more than 100,000 clerics had signed the religious edict.Since 2013 nearly 50 people, including members of religious minorities, foreigners and liberal activists, have been murdered by Islamist militants, according to Press TV.More than 11,000 people have been arrested over the past four days in a new crackdown in connection with the attacks.Masuod believes the fatwa will make a difference as it disparages any Islamic militants that try to defend the killings. Confirmation of the fatwa coincided with the fourth day of a nationwide anti-militant drive during which police said they arrested 3,115 people, bringing the total arrested over the short period to more than 11,300.Some 176 of those arrested are suspected members of Islamist militant groups, according to NDTV. Arms, ammunition, other weapons and more than 2,000 motorbikes were also seized during this week’s raids.Bangladesh police said the arrest on Thursday of a man suspected of attacking a secular publisher, blogger and poet last year is an important breakthrough in the ongoing case.