Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed on Monday called on the Ministry of Religious Affairs to conduct a mosque-by-mosque investigation into alleged irregularities in the model mosque project launched during the tenure of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

“I would ask the ministry to determine how the construction cost of a mosque increased from 13 crore taka to 21 crore taka, what the total estimated cost of the mosques was and how many mosques were constructed,” he told Parliament. 

Salahuddin made the remarks on behalf of Religious Affairs Minister Kazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad while responding to a supplementary question from treasury bench lawmaker Zainul Abedin Farroque (Noakhali-2) during the question-answer session in the Jatiya Sangsad.

Farroque sought to know whether the government would investigate the Senbagh Model Mosque in his constituency, alleging that its construction cost had risen from 13 crore taka to 21 crore taka.

During the discussion, Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal, who was presiding over the sitting, also questioned the location of the Durgapur Model Mosque in his constituency. He said the mosque had been built behind a large pond, making it difficult for local residents to access without crossing a bridge.

Responding to the concerns, Salahuddin described the issues he had raised might not be limited to a single project.

“What he has raised may be applicable elsewhere as well because the Awami fascist government undertook many projects to plunder money,” he said.

The minister, however, said he was not suggesting that the alleged irregularities in the model mosque project were on the same scale as those alleged in the Padma Bridge project.

“Model mosques are undoubtedly a good initiative, but it is a legitimate question whether the project for constructing these mosques was implemented properly and how the cost of a mosque increased,” he said.

In 2017, the then government of Sheikh Hasina took the project to construct 560 model mosques and Islamic Cultural Centres in three categories across the country.

Under category A, 69 four-storey mosques with elevators and a floor space of 2,360 square metres each are being constructed in 64 districts and city corporation areas.

Under category B, 475 mosques are being built with a floor space of 1680 square metres each in upazila level, and 16 mosques with a floor space of 2,052 square metres each in coastal areas under the category C.

So far, at least 350 mosques have been inaugurated in seven different phases.