Jamaat-e-Islami and all its outfits have been banned from politics in Bangladesh under ant-terrorism laws on accusation of committing undercover subversive acts amid students' quota protests.
The government Thursday issued a notification outlawing Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, its student-wing Islami Chhatra Shibir and all other affiliated organisations under provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009.
The Public Security Division of the Home Ministry issued the gazette notification capping a couple of days of announcements by government ministers in the wake of street rioting amid countrywide student protests.
According to the official firman, the government made the decision as per Section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 and enlisted the Islamic party as a "banned entity" in the second schedule of the act.
"All the activities of the party and its affiliated organisations have been banned through this. A section of people of the country have been demanding a ban on the party that had a controversial role during the country's Liberation War in 1971," says the gazette to justify the action, over five decades after the country's independence.
After sending legal opinion on the matter, Law Minister Anisul Huq Thursday said Jamaat and its affiliated organisations cannot do politics using these names.
The cabinet members of the government had blamed Chhatra Shibir for the violence during the quota-reform movement. In this circumstance, top leaders of the 14-party alliance last Monday decided to ban politics of Jamaat and Shibir.
It is stated in the notification that the government possesses "enough evidences that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its front organisation Islami Chhatra Shibir were involved in recent killings, destructive and terrorist activities directly and through incitement".
And as the government believes "Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir and its front organisations are involved in terrorist activities, the government, exercising its jurisdiction given under the Section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009, declared Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir and its front organisations banned as political parity and entity."
Citing three verdicts of the International Crimes Tribunal related to Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, including former Jamaat Ameer Ghulam Azam, the gazette says Jamaat (previously named Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh) and its student wing Shibir (previously known as Islami Chhatra Sangha), the tribunal held Jamaat and its front organisation liable for committing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
Besides, the gazette reads, the High Court, following a writ petition in August 2013, declared the registration of the Jamaat with the Election Commission illegal. The Supreme Court later upheld the HC verdict.
Meanwhile, says a UNB report, Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq said the government is ready to confront any covert activity by the just-banned Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir.
He made the forewarning in response to questions from journalists at the Secretariat.
Asked whether Jamaat-Shibir would go underground once banned, the minister didn't rule out the possibility. "They may go underground. Many parties have done so in the past, and you know what happened to those parties. However, we are prepared to handle such a situation," he said.
The minister also mentioned that the government has taken steps to amend the International Crimes Tribunal Act.
"It is not that banned party members cannot be punished. The ban may not directly lead to penalties, but they can still be prosecuted for any crime committed under Bangladeshi law," he explained.
In response to a question about the fate of the party's assets post-ban, he assured that measures were in place.
Regarding punitive actions against party members, the law minister clarified that they cannot engage in politics under the banner of the banned party.
"If they commit any crime under any law of Bangladesh, they will be prosecuted. However, there will not be mass trials for new Jamaat-e-Islami activists who were born after 1971," he said.
A total of 32 gallantry award-winning valiant Freedom Fighters (FFs) congratulated the government for banning the politics of defeated evil forces of '71 - Jamaat-Shibir.
Referring to the recent countrywide mayhem and rampage by Jamaat-Shibir in name of quota reform movement, they demanded bringing them, along with other terrorists, under law for the crime of destroying public and private properties, said in a press release of Khetab Prapto Muktijoddha Association.
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