Sacked Bangladesh minister faces arrest for Hajj criticism

DHAKA: A Bangladesh court ordered the arrest Wednesday of a former minister who was dismissed last week after Islamists staged nationwide protests calling for his prosecution over remarks criticising the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka issued an arrest warrant for Abdul Latif Siddique for allegedly "wounding religious sentiments" of the country´s majority Muslim population, police inspector Aminur Rahman said.

"The arrest warrant has been sent to a police station in his hometown," Rahman told AFP.

Siddique, formerly an influential minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, accompanied her last month on a visit to New York where he spoke out against the Hajj pilgrimage as well as against a non-political Islamic group, the Tablig Jamaat.