Dhaka, Bangladesh - Hundreds of hard-line Muslims rallied in Bangladesh’s capital on Sunday to demand the government declare a minority Islamic sect non-Muslim, police said.
About 300 activists from the Islamic International Khatme Nubuwat Movement marched through Dhaka’s streets, chanting slogans against the Ahmadi Islamic sect, said police official Ali Ahmed Masud. Police intercepted the march, but no violence was reported, Masud said.
He said more than 100 police were guarding an Ahmadi mosque that the hard-liners had said they planned to seize. “The situation is under control,” Masud said.
The International Khatme Nubuwat Movement has demanded that the government introduce a bill in parliament to declare the Ahmadis non-Muslims.
The group also wants a ban on the Ahmadis’ writings and missionary activities.
Bangladesh has about 100,000 Ahmadis, who differ from other Muslims over whether Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), was the religion’s final prophet. The group on Friday announced plans to put up signs in front of the 120 Ahmadi mosques across Bangladesh, declaring them places “places of worship,” not mosques.
The International Khatme Nubuwat Movement had earlier warned the government there would be “bloodshed,” if necessary, to protect Islam from heretics.
Ahmadi spokesman SM Tauhidul Islam said the group fears violent attacks by the hard-liners.
“We want protection,” he said on Saturday. He said the group has alerted Ahmadis across Bangladesh, a Sunni Muslim-majority nation of 144 million people.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner SM Mizanur Rahman said they would provide the minority with adequate protection. The Ahmadi sect was founded in 1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, an Indian religious leader who claimed to be a prophet seeking Islam’s renewal.
New York-based Human Rights Watch criticised Bangladesh’s government last year for failing to prosecute those behind an alleged campaign of violence, harassment and intimidation against Ahmadis.