Bangladesh’s interim government lifts ban on Jamaat-e-Islami party
Al Jazeera
Caretaker administration says ex-PM Hasina’s claims of its ‘terrorist activities’ during student protests were baseless.
Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has lifted a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami party that was imposed under an antiterrorism law.
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday revoked the ban on the country’s largest Muslim party, put in place in the last days of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration accusing its members of fomenting unrest during the student uprising that led to her resignation.
A gazette notification issued by the caretaker government said there was “no specific evidence of involvement of Jamaat” and its affiliates “in terrorist activities”.
The party had denied allegations that it stoked violence during the protests, which saw students take a stand against a quota system for government jobs, condemning the ban as “illegal, extrajudicial and unconstitutional”.
Jamaat-e-Islami, which has millions of supporters, was banned in 2013 from contesting elections after high court judges ruled its charter violated the secular constitution of the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people.
