Court Correspondent :A Dhaka court yesterday (Wednesday) issued arrest warrant against sacked Awami League minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui in a case filed for hurting religious sentiments of people, as he did not appear in person in the court. Shahriar Mahmud Adnan of Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court passed the warrant order on Wednesday after Latif had failed to appear.The court had earlier summoned Latif Siddiqui in the court in the case filed on Oct 2 by Advocate Shah Alam. He drew condemnation after the ex. minister allegedly passed very objectionable comments about the holy Hajj at a programme in New York on September 28.”So much manpower is wasted during the Hajj. Two million people are now in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. They have no work or role in production. They only eat and go abroad at the cost of the country’s money,” Latif was heard saying these.Since then, more than two dozen cases have been filed against him with different district courts for hurting the religious sentiments of the Muslims. After uproar in different quarters of the country, the government dropped him from the council of ministers while the ruling Awami League expelled him from the party Presidium on Sunday and suspended party membership..On Tuesday, the party demanded explanation in writing from Abdul Latif Siddiqui as to why he should not be expelled from the party permanently for his derogatory remark about Hajj.
