Dhaka: Jamaat-e-Islam will be banned by 2016 through legal procedure, said Food Minister Qamrul Islam.

The minister while addressing an anti-hartal human chain and rally at National Press Club on Thursday said: ‘Jamaat cannot be existed in Bangladesh. It cannot be allowed to practice politics in this country. It is merely a matter of time to ban Jamaat. There is no doubt that Jamaat will be banned through legal procedure by the year 2016.’

The minister also believed that the sources which invest for Jamaat must also be stopped.

Those who made bad remark about the Liberation War, will be brought to justice, added the minister.

Ramna Awami League president Abul Bashar chaired the rally. Awami League publication secretary Hasan Mahmud, Dhaka Metropolitan Awami League organising secretary Shahe Alam Murad, Bangabandhu Cultural Alliance general secretary Aurun Sarkar Rana addressed the rally.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Jamaat-e-Islami called a dawn-to-dusk hartal from Thursday morning protesting Supreme Court’s order that upheld death penalty for its amir Motiur Rahman Nizami.