Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport & Bridges Minister of Bangladesh Obaidul Quader has warned the fundamentalist forces against misrepresenting the issue of the sculpture of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Speaking to the media in Dhaka on Saturday, Obaidul Quader said that a communal force is creating unwanted debate on this issue to spread hatred among the religious people.

Reiterating the resolve of the government to protect the spirit of Bangladesh’s liberation war and constitution, the senior Awami League leader and Minister said that the evil attempt to destroy the people’s peace will be resisted. Obaidul Quader said that those trying to destroy the country’s religious tolerance will be dealt with an iron hand. He called upon the people to remain united to resist all the evil efforts, reports the official news agency BSS.

Earlier on Friday, Liberation War Affairs Minister AQM Mozammel Haque had said that the controversy over the Bangabandhu sculpture is a conspiracy of anti-independence forces in Bangladesh.

The statement comes in the backdrop of the threat issued by the new chief of the hardline Islamist group of Bangladesh Hefazat-e-Islam Junaid Babunagari on Friday that it will pull down all the statues in the country, no matter whose statue is this. Hefazat-e-Islam has been opposing the installation of the statue of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the occasion of his birth centenary ‘Mujib Borsho’.

According to local media reports Junaid Babunagari had also demanded that activities of ISKCON be stopped, Ahmadiyas be declared ‘non-Muslim’ and the French embassy be closed.