Jamaat-e-Islami’s central Nayeb-e-Ameer Dr. Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher has described the upcoming national election as highly challenging. Speaking on Wednesday afternoon at a views-exchange meeting in Chauddagram, Comilla, with former chairmen, commissioners, and members of thirteen unions, he said that Bangladesh achieved freedom from what he termed Indian subjugation through a revolution on August 5, fifty-four years after independence.

Dr. Taher stated that although Bangladesh had territorial sovereignty, successive governments had accepted subordination to India. He claimed that the youth of the country had shed blood to free Bangladesh from Indian dominance, calling it the nation’s “second independence” and the beginning of a new Bangladesh. He also said that during his tenure in power from 2001 to 2006, he did not engage in corruption, but was arrested on false charges and later certified as corruption-free by the authorities.

The remarks were made in the context of Jamaat’s ongoing political activities ahead of the next national election, which Dr. Taher characterized as a critical national challenge.