Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The Bangladesh government banned Jamaat-e-Islami, its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir and all its front organisations under the Anti-Terrorism Act-2009 on Thursday.
The home ministry issued a gazette notification in the afternoon after the law ministry gave a nod in this regard.
The notification came hours after Law Minister Anisul Huq said the executive order banning Jamaat-e-Islami, which already lost its registration as a political party for committing war crimes, will be announced shortly after the legal process is complete.
Earlier on July 29, a meeting of the 14-Party Alliance led by the ruling Awami League decided to slap a ban on Jamaat and Shibir for their ‘involvement’ in the recent violence surrounding the protests over quota reform in the public service.
According to the notification, the government took the decision as per Section 18 (1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act-2009 and enlisted it as banned entity in the second schedule of the act.
The section reads: "For the purposes of this act, the government, on reasonable grounds that a person or an entity is involved in terrorist activities, may, by order, enlist the person in the schedule or proscribe the entity and enlist it in the schedule."
"As the government possesses enough evidence 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," the gazette noted.
"As the government believes that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir and its front organisations are involved with terrorist activities, the government, following 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," it said.
Citing three verdicts of the International Crimes Tribunal related to Jamaat-e-Islami leaders including former Jamaat Ameer Ghulam Azam, the gazette said Jamaat (previously named as 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 said, 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.
BBN/SSR/AD