Saqlain Rizve
Bangladesh’s interim government has banned all activities, including the online presence, of the Awami League (AL), led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, until the ongoing trials for crimes against humanity and genocide involving its leaders — these relate to the party’s deadly crackdown on the July uprising of 2024 — are concluded.
The decision, which came nine months after Hasina’s ouster from power by student-led mass protests, has been taken under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was enacted by the AL back in 2009. The interim government banned the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the AL’s notorious student wing, under the same act on October 23 last year.
The ban on the AL marks a significant escalation in Bangladesh’s turbulent political landscape. It also raises questions about the efficacy and implications of banning political parties in a country with a history of such measures.
Civil society groups and political parties, particularly the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the AL’s archrival since the 1971 Liberation War, as well as the recently formed National Citizens Party (NCP) and most right-wing groups, have been calling for banning the AL.
However, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has not adopted a firm stance on banning the party. In October 2024, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told Prothom Alo, a Bangladeshi daily, “We have no objection to AL participating in elections, but criminals must face trial.” Last week, before the interim government announced the ban, BNP Standing Committee Member Abdul Moyeen Khan said that the decision to ban the AL lies with the Election Commission or the government, not the BNP. Following the ban announcement, however, Alamgir said that the “BNP is happy with the government’s decision.”
With the ban on the AL, a critical contradiction has emerged in the current political landscape, where the JI, a party that collaborated with West Pakistan during the 1971 genocide, led the call for the ban on the AL. This paradox is striking, given the JI’s historic role in opposing Bangladesh’s liberation. What further complicates matters is the alignment of JI activists with the NCP in recent protests against the AL, which have also featured prominent far-right political personalities.
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