Major (retd) Akhtaruzzaman Ranjan, a former BNP member of parliament who recently joined Jamaat-e-Islami, urged Jamaat leaders and activists to attend a programme linked to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s planned visit to Katiadi, Kishoreganj, on August 16 for National Fisheries Week. Speaking after Zuhr prayers at Gachihata Bazar Jame Mosque on Tuesday afternoon, he said they should attend whether or not they received an invitation.

Ranjan welcomed the prime minister’s visit and described the event as a government programme. He said Bangladesh’s fisheries sector began its journey from Katiadi in 1991, when then-prime minister and BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia held a public meeting at Gachihata College field. He claimed Gachihata gradually became a sub-town after her visit.

He said the government should bear the programme’s costs and urged that money not be collected from ordinary people. Ranjan alleged that pressure was being placed on businesses to raise funds through trade licences and other channels for administrative expenses. He asked Kishoreganj state minister Shariful Alam not to impose such costs on the public.