Ahead of polls, Hasina announces to build 560 model mosques, Islamic university in B'desh

Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday announced that her government will construct 560 model mosques and an Islamic university with the Saudi assistance, in an attempt to woo hardline Islamists ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled next month.

Speaking at an Islamic clerics rally here, Hasina urged the clerics not to be agitated by anti-Islam propaganda on social media, saying her government has enacted tougher laws to expose to justice perpetrators of any malicious campaign regarding the religion.

"I know that a lot of propaganda spreads on social media...do not pay any heed to them, she said.

The premier said that her government has introduced tough cyber-crime laws to deal with such malicious campaigns and anyone who spreads such false information would be exposed to justice."

She said the Saudi government will assist her government in building the mosques and the Islamic university, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Hasina's Awami League party is considered as the secular party while her rival Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is close to hardliners.

Her move to build hundreds of mosques is seen as an attempt to woo Islamist voters who have been traditionally voting for Zia's BNP and her ally Jamaat-e-Islami, according to experts.

The rally was organised by Al-Hiyatul Ulya Lil-Zami'atil Qawmiya Bangladesh, the highest organisation of Dawra-e-Hadith of Qawmi madrasa, to honour the prime minister following her government's recognition of certifications offered by non-government madrasas as equivalent to postgraduate degrees.

Thousands of students and teachers of Qawmi madrasas attended the rally.