Hifazat-e Islam Joint Secretary General Mamunul Haque has called on the interim government to withdraw all cases against the organisation’s leaders and activists within two months, warning of consequences if the demand is unmet.

Speaking at a grand rally at Suhrawardy Udyan, Mamunul said: “If the false cases against Hifazat supporters are not withdrawn within this period, we will do whatever needs to be done.”

He expressed frustration at the lack of progress despite repeated appeals. “We, the central leaders, met with Chief Advisor (Muhammad) Yunus several times, requesting him to drop the false cases filed against us during the fascist era.”

Taking a jab at the chief advisor, Mamunul remarked: “A cat in gloves catches no mice. Have you forgotten that just a few months ago, you used to walk around the court before us?”

Mamunul also criticised the interim government’s in-principle decision to provide a humanitarian corridor in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. “Let me remind you: in 1971, freedom fighters said they broke the shackles of Rawalpindi, not to be slaves of Delhi. After the July 2024 struggle, I say: we broke free from Delhi’s shackles, not to become slaves of New York.”

“If there’s a conspiracy to turn Bangladesh into a pawn of Washington, to undermine our independence and sovereignty in the name of a humanitarian corridor, then I call on the people of Bangladesh to prepare for war,” he declared.

Mamunul further accused the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission of “mocking the Quran and Islam” under the guise of reforms, alleging that it had “hurt the religious sentiments of the majority”.

He urged the state to take action against “the crime of hurting religious sentiments,” reaffirming Hifazat’s commitment to the rights of women “as granted by Islam and Almighty Allah,” rather than “the ideology of so-called Western thinkers and controversial feminists”.He warned that the people of Bangladesh would not accept “controversial, anti-unitarian ideas like pluralism” in the reform process.