Following widespread unrest over the limit program for government jobs, Bangladesh on Thursday banned the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student-wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, charging the conservative party with starting protests that resulted in at least 150 deaths. The Islamist group, a vital ally of Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was banned in a Thursday warning from the ministry of home affairs ‘ people security division.
Under Section 18( 1 ) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, an executive order was passed to prohibit Jamaat, Chhatra Shibir, and other affiliated organizations.
When Italian Ambassador Antonio Alessandro called on her at her official residence Ganabhaban on Thursday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said,” They ( Jamaat-Shibir and BNP ) just used the students as their shield.”
According to a spokesman for the Home Ministry, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its different arms were prohibited from all social activities on August 1.
Following the fatal demonstrations in the country over restrictions in government jobs, the Bangladeshi government on Tuesday declared its intention to outlaw the Jamaat-e-Islami, accusing it of using it to fuel the at least 150-person death wave.
Following a decision that Jamaat must be out of elections earlier this year, a meeting of the decision Awami League-led 14-party empire approved the development.
Jamaat’s ban comes more than 50 years after its original ban in 1972 was for “misusing church for democratic purposes.”
During the Liberation War, the Jamaat sided with Bangladeshi forces and opposed Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
The group, founded in 1941 in complete India, was second banned in 1972, the time Bangladesh framed its Constitution, which disbanded the working of any organization or coalition or political group based on religion.
However, General Ziaur Rahman’s later military administration reinstated the ban by issuing a martial law proclamation, which made Jamaat able to resurrect and years afterward became a key partner of Khaleda Zia’s four-party alliance government’s transition from 2001 to 2006. She appointed two prominent Jamaat officials to her case.
The Jamaat’s inclusion in the Liberation War has attracted the support of senior officials of the ruling Awami League, who have been in authority for 15 years.
Despite losing its registration and being barred from voting in court cases, The Jamaat remained effective.
According to the report, the group allegedly participated in the recent violence involving the limit reform movement protests, which the government cited as a justification for the ban.
When the demonstrations that had started in universities and colleges earlier this month quickly turned into a popular anger against Prime Minister Hasina and her administration’s policies, assault immediately swept Bangladesh for almost the entire summer.
After the turmoil, which left at least 150 lifeless and several thousand people injured, including policemen, and big government installations damaged, the government called in the Army to stop protests against work quotas.
Law Minister Anisul Huq announced on Tuesday that an executive attempt will be passed to implement the ban due to recent crime involving the limit reform movement.
He claimed that the individuals who organized a quota system protest claimed they had no connection to the violence and that there was proof that Jamaat, its undergraduate organization, Islami Chhatra Shibir, BNP, and a scholar back Chhatra Dal, a militant group, were responsible for the carnage.
” From now on, the group may have on its politicians using its name”, he told investigators on Thursday.
Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the party’s home minister, warned that any harsh reaction to the selection may be severely punished as a result of the greater ceremony being enforced by security forces.
In 2009, Bangladesh began a trial of the major Pakistani soldiers ‘ partners on charges of crimes against humanity. Six of the top Jamaat and one of the BNP leaders were hanged following their trials in two special war crimes courts while the Supreme Court’s peak Appellate Division upheld the judgments.
