Bill on banning Jamaat likely in current JS session

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq yesterday hoped that the government would place a bill in parliament soon to ban Jamaat-e-Islam that opposed the country's independence in 1971.

He was speaking in parliament on the proposed budget for 2016-17.

Mozammel said the government had finalised the definition of freedom fighter, which now would include those engaged in running the Mujibnagar government, Shwadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, medical teams that treated freedom fighters, and football teams. The rape victims (known as Biranganas) of the 1971 war will also be treated as freedom fighters, he said.

On banning Jamaat, he said, "The law minister has assured that a bill will be placed in this session to ban Jamaat.”

Jamaat is a party of war criminals as it opposed the Liberation War; the party has no right to be in the country's politics, and there is no alternative to banning it, he said.

He said special allowances should be introduced for freedom fighters for five occasions -- two Eids, Pahela Baishakh, Independence Day, and Victory Day.