Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar on Friday accused Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman of benefiting the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and alleged that "election engineering" had distorted the results of the recently concluded 13th Jatiya Sangsad polls.
Speaking at a brief rally after Jumma prayers at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka, Porwar claimed that the public mandate had been manipulated during the vote-counting and result announcement process.
The demonstration was organised by Jamaat-e-Islami demanding that former interim government advisers Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Khalilur Rahman be questioned over alleged manipulation of the election outcome.
Porwar said his party accepted the election results despite deep frustration, alleging that irregularities at various stages of counting and result declaration had altered the verdict of the voters.
"We have accepted the results with heavy hearts after being forcibly defeated," he said, claiming that the people's mandate had been changed through manipulation.
Addressing Khalilur Rahman directly, the Jamaat leader said that those who had earlier demanded the adviser's resignation from the interim government were now the very people who had brought him into the present cabinet.
"You did not enter the government merely by personal choice. Those within the government and the deep state-those who shape policy-selected and brought you back to the cabinet," Porwar alleged.
He further claimed that Rahman had been rewarded with the post of foreign minister for actions that earlier benefited the BNP.
Porwar also criticised the practice of individuals from a non-political interim administration later assuming ministerial positions in a political government, saying it contradicted established democratic norms.
Reiterating allegations of election manipulation, he said irregularities during the counting and announcement of results after polling had concluded had significantly affected the outcome.
Leaders and activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir and Jamaat-e-Islami attended the gathering.
After the rally, participants brought out a protest procession that marched from Baitul Mukarram through the Paltan intersection and ended in Bijoynagar.
Porwar said Jamaat wanted to fulfil the aspirations of the people in governing the country and urged those allegedly involved in electoral manipulation-whether in government or among former advisers-to reflect on their actions.
