UNB, Dhaka :The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) on Thursday urged the alliance of Islamic parties to withdraw their Sunday’s countrywide daylong hartal to help keep economic activities unhurt.”A business and investment-friendly environment is now prevailing in the country. At this stage, any negative programme like hartal will have adverse impact on the country’s image in addition to discouraging the investors,” said the apex trade body in a statement.It also said, the country is witnessing a positive trend in forex reserve, remittance, foreign investment,and import-export activities and investors from different countries like Japan, China and Italy have shown their interests to invest in Bangladesh.In such a situation, any negative programme, including hartal, will only destroy the country’s image and discourage the investors, said the statement.Earlier, on October 12, hours after his removal from the cabinet, Awami League Central Working Committee (ALCWC) expelled Abdul Latif Siddique from the party presidium for hurting the religious sentiment of Muslims and acting against the party constitution.Sammilito Islami Dal, a coalition of Islamic parties, on Wednesday called a countrywide daylong hartal for October 26 demanding Latif Siddique’s trial for his disparaging remarks about hajj and Tablig Jamaat.Maulana Zafrullah Khan, secretary general of the coalition, announced the shutdown for Sunday (Oct 26) from a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka in the morning as the government failed to arrest Latif Siddique by Wednesday for his remarks, exceeding their previously-given deadline.Latif Siddiqui at a views-exchange meeting with expatriates from Tangail on September 28 in the USA said, “During hajj, so much manpower is wasted. Over 20 lakh people have gone to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj. They’ve no work, no production and they only cause deduction.””Some 20 lakh Tablig Jamaat people get together annually who don’t do any work except halting traffic movement across the country,” he added.
