Bangladesh court to hear petition challenging Islam as state religion

DHAKA: The Bangladesh High Court will hear this month a petition that was initially filed 28 years ago, challenging the constitutional amendment that gave “Islam” status of the state’s religion.
The development comes amid a crackdown by the Bangladesh government against “militants” behind the “violence” that has recently gripped the country — liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted in multiple attacks.
According to Dawn, the move to make Islam the state religion had come under military ruler H. M. Ershad, who had inserted a section in the eighth amendment to the constitution making Islam Bangladesh’s state religion on June 9, 1988.
While the government did not respond to the court’s query, it went on to maintain Islam as the state religion via the 15th constitutional amendment, which also reinstated “secularism” as a founding principle of the state.

Three suspected militants detained
Bangladesh’s elite anti-terrorism unit detained on Sunday three suspected members of a militant group believed to be behind a spate of recent attacks in the south Asian country.
Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a rise in violence in which liberal activists, members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have been targeted.
The detainees were members of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and were arrested in a raid conducted in the northwestern district of Rajshahi, said Rumman Mahmud, a deputy director of the Rapid Action Battalion.
Sixteen crude bombs, seven petrol bombs and extremist literature were also found in their possession, he added. The group is believed to be behind attacks such as the bombings of a Shiite site and the killing of two foreigners.
Daesh has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, including the killing of a Hindu priest last month, but the government has denied the militant group has a presence in Bangladesh. At least five militants of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen have been killed in shootouts since November, as security forces stepped up a crackdown on militants.