Govt lifts ban on Jamaat, Shibir

The Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday regained its right to do politics as the interim government revoked the executive order issued by the ousted Awami League government banning the Islamist party and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir.

The home ministry issued a gazette in this regard.

Jamaat, Shibir and all of Jamaat's front organisations were banned on August 1 as political parties and entities under the Anti-Terrorism Act-2009.

The home ministry on that day issued a gazette banning those outfits following the law ministry's approval. The AL government had taken the decision as per Section 18 (1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act-2009.

"The government has enough evidence that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir were involved in recent killings and destructive and terrorist activities directly and through incitement," read the gazette.

Following a writ petition, the High Court in August 2013 declared Jamaat's registration with the Election Commission illegal. The Supreme Court later upheld the HC verdict, it added.

In yesterday's gazette notification, the home ministry said the government has cancelled the previous circular that banned Jamaat, Shibir and its front organisations as there is no specific evidence on their involvement in terrorist activities, and the government believes that these organisations are not involved in terrorist activities.

The decision will come into effect immediately, the notification said.

'AL BANNED JAMAAT TO CONTINUE REPRESSION'

Law Adviser Asif Nazrul yesterday said the AL did not ban Jamaat from its policy position, rather this was done terming the mass uprising "terrorist activities" to continue repression.

Speaking to reporters at his office at the Secretariat, he said some sections of the society had been demanding ban on Jamaat for many years, but the AL did not do it during its 15-year rule.

"They [Awami League] did it when the student movement was going on. They termed the mass uprising an act of the Jamaat-BNP terrorists and tried to brutally suppress the movement. You have got proof of this," Asif said.

The adviser said the interim government cannot be a part of the AL's narrative that the mass uprising spearheaded by students was a terrorist act.

In August 2013, the High Court declared Jamaat's registration illegal following a writ petition filed in 2009 by Bangladesh Tariqat Federation Secretary General Rezaul Haque Chandpuri and 24 others.

Jamaat was first banned in independent Bangladesh in 1972 over their anti-liberation role under a new constitutional provision that banned politics based on religion.

The ban, however, was lifted three years later when BNP founder Ziaur Rahman came to power and amended the constitution through martial law proclamation.

JAMAAT LIKELY TO MOVE SC

Jamaat is likely to file an application to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday seeking restoration of its appeal challenging a High Court verdict that scrapped its registration with the Election Commission as a political party, Mohammad Shishir Manir, a counsel for Jamaat, told The Daily Star yesterday.

On November 19 last year, a five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by then chief justice Obaidul Hassan, dismissed Jamaat's appeal for "default" as its counsels did not appear before the court that day.

Jamaat had filed the appeal against the HC verdict that on August 1, 2013, scrapped its registration.