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DHAKA: Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday to demand that followers of a tiny Muslim sect be declared infidels, in a show of force for hard-liners ahead of elections.
The Ahmadiya community, followers of a branch of Sufism that has its origins in 19th-century India, have long been persecuted in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
Mob attacks targeting sect member were reported across the country when former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government fell last year in a student-led revolution.
In the months since then, hard-line Islamist groups that had been stifled under Hasina’s autocratic rule have returned to the fore, in part hoping to make headway in general elections set for February.
The crowd in the heart of Dhaka on Saturday included political leaders and senior Islamic preachers from India, Pakistan, ����ֱ�� and Egypt.
Some protesters wore T-shirts that read: “Ahmadiyas must be declared kafirs (infidels).”
A banner called for legislation against the sect “now.”
Hard-line Islamic scholars often denounce them as heretics, describing their belief in a prophet after Mohammed as blasphemy.
“Ahmadiyas hold a completely different view from ours, and that’s why they are not us,” protester Mohammad Mamun Sheikh, 50, told AFP.
“They can live in our country like followers of other religions, but not as Muslims,” he added.
A 15-year-old boy at the rally, whose name has been withheld for safety, said his teacher had encouraged him to attend, arguing that “Ahmadiyas are polluting our religion.”
Ahmad Tabshir Choudhury, a spokesman for the Ahmadiya community in Bangladesh, dismissed the theological arguments against them.
“Religion is being used as a political tool,” he told AFP.
Ahmadiyas make up less than one percent of Bangladesh’s population.
“If our community made up even ten percent of the population, things would be different. Ahmadiyas would be treated differently by political parties,” Choudhury said.
He added that despite fear of attacks, community members would not abandon their faith.
“We will not give in,” he said.