Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said the government allowed the Ahmadiyya community’s recent religious event in Panchagarh – calling the congregation “controversial”. “The government gave permission to hold this controversial event,” Fakhrul said in a press conference yesterday, video of which has generated reaction among netizens on social media. Communal attacks on the Ahmadiyya community’s religious event in Panchagarh on March 3 left two dead and over 50 injured. The angry mob also looted around 20 houses belonging to the Ahmadiyya community located in Ahmednagar. Fakhrul’s remark comes at a time when Basherkella – a pro-Jamaat-e-Islami Twitter account – condemned police action to stop the violence over the Ahmadiyya religious event and called for “boycotting” the community. The Ahmadiyya community has called it a “hate campaign” against them. Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Acting Secretary General Maulana ATM Masum issued a statement on March 5, asking the government to officially declare the Ahmadiyya community “non-Muslim”.