Bangladesh’s interim government of Mohamed Yunus will lift the ban on Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami on Tuesday, according to reports.
The previous Sheikh Hasina-led government had banned Jamaat on August 1 during anti-government protests. What started as students’ protest against the country’s quota system turned into a mass movement against 15 years of her rule as the Jamaat and Opposition’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) also took the streets.
Now, as BNP and Jamaat have taken a prominent role in the Bangladesh’s post-Hasina polity, the Yunus regime is set to lift the ban on Jamaat.
Jamaat’s lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir told the media on Monday that the decision to lift the ban is being taken after a meeting with Yunus, the head of the unelected interim government propped by Bangladesh’s military and protesters who led the movement against Hasina.
“On August 5, the erstwhile government fell. On that very day, meetings between political parties were held at the office of the chief of army staff and Bangabhaban. The Jamaat-e-Islami, as one of the major political parties in the country, had been formally invited. Later, Jamaat played a significant role in the formation of the interim government’s Advisory Council…On August 12, Jamaat had an official meeting with the Chief Adviser [Yunus]. According to the discussion of the meeting, the legal aspects were examined, and necessary steps were taken for an immediate solution,” said Manir, as per The Dhaka Tribune.
Jamaat is an Islamist and pro-Pakistan organisation that has been linked to violence against Hindus in the past. Since Hasina’s ouster, the nation has been enveloped in a wave of violence against Hindus and other ethnic minorities. More than 200 attacks have been documented against common Hindus, Hindu politicians, Hindu houses, and Hindu temples. Jamaat had led a wave of violence in 2001 as well.
In 2001, the BNP-Jamaat alliance had won the Bangladeshi elections. Following their victory, their cadres unleashed a wave of violence upon the nation’s minority in which hundreds of attacks and rapes of women were reported. A judicial commission set up in later years concluded that more than 200 Hindu women were raped and around 25,000 BNP and Jamaat cadres took part in the violence.
In the independence movement against Pakistan that culminated in 1971, the Jamaat had supported the Pakistani regime that was systemically torturing the native Bangladeshis stressing on the Bangla culture instead of the imposition of Pakistan’s Urdu culture.
With Jamaat’s role set to increase in Bangladeshi polity, the clout of Pakistan may also increase and the country may find itself home to anti-India elements. Previously, top intelligence sources told CNN-News 18 that Pakistan not only funded the movement of Jamaat and its student wing against Hasina but also held briefings on how to wage their movement and arranged for shelter as Hasina’s forces cracked down on them. They said Pakistan’s endgame is to get a BNP-Jamaat government elected in Bangladesh.
“They provoke unrest, killing, and terrorism, so that the world’s attention comes to them. Once that is achieved, they want a neutral government and elections again by the UN. Neutrality right now is to remove Hasina by force or by international pressure and then go for elections. The idea is only to get a new government led by BNP and Jamat.
Source by : Firstpost
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