Jamaat-e-Islami chief and Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami yesterday said the militant kingpin will be caught and tried on sedition charge.

“Many militants have already been arrested^The main man will also be caught. He is under close

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watch of the intelligence agencies,” Nizami told a briefing with members of the Overseas Correspondents Association Bangladesh (OCAB) at his party office.

In reply to a question, he said since the banned JMB and its associates have struck on the existence of Bangladesh and the national security, they would be tried on sedition charges.

“They are enemies of nation, democracy and Islam... Soon the government will be able to eliminate JMB and other conspiratorial cliques if it gets support from all.”

About the objectives of bomb terrorism, he said the militants want to brand Bangladesh as fanatic and terrorist state, create grounds for intervention by foreign aggressors by proving Bangladesh as a dysfunctional state, damage the country's economic prospects by wrecking democratic and constitutional process, and split the alliance of Islamic and nationalist forces.

On JMB's campaign for establishment of Islamic rule in Bangladesh, the Jamaat chief said although they are using Islamic terminology like Allah's law, Islamic rule, the agenda of these extremist suicide squads is not to establish Islam.

“They are using the name of Islam to destroy Islam and Islamic movement and misleading the people,” he said, adding that Islamic parties, scholars and Imams are strongly opposed to their activities in the name of Jihad.

Repeatedly denying Jamaat links with the militant outfits, who are now engaged in recurrent bomb strikes, Nizami said his party does not believe in the policy of imposing Islamic social system by applying force.

Asked about the comments by some BNP lawmakers and ministers about dropping Jamaat from the alliance on the allegation of its links with militancy, he said these are their personal remarks, but such remarks would affect the unity of the alliance. “These are not responsible remarks,

which may help our opponents and may split the alliance.”

“Those who are desperate to prove Jamaat attachment with militants by citing some one's past identity and student life, their lame excuse will be rejected by the people. I like to pronounce firmly that their crooked scheme will fail.”

Asked which country could intervene, Nizami said, “I don't feel it necessary to name any country as you know it well. If some one says the situation in Bangladesh is worse than that of Afghanistan and Iraq where military intervention was made, what does it mean? In that case this apprehension comes for obvious reasons.”

Asked about opposition leader Sheikh Hasina's demand seeking UN special inquiry into all these bombs and grenade attacks in Bangladesh, he said, “It's better to solve our problems ourselves. There had not been international inquiry after the Twin Tower blasts.”