The government on Wednesday cancelled the gazette notification, which was issued to ban Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir, by the ousted Awami League government days before their fall amid unprecedented student-people uprising.
The public security division of the home ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard on Wednesday.
According to the gazette notification, specific evidence has not been found that Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Shibir and its associate bodies were involved in violence. The government believes Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Shibir and its associate bodies are not engaged in violent activities.
On August 1, the Sheikh Hasina government banned Jamaat-e-Islam and the Chhatra Shibir under section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
After three days of this decision, the Hasina-led government was toppled on August 5 and Sheikh Hasina fled the country to India. The interim government was formed on August 8.
Section 18(1)聽 of the act reads, 鈥楩or 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.鈥�
After issuing the order, the then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters in his secretariat office that if Jamaat-Shibir tried to commit any violence after the ban, action would be taken against them.
He said that Jamaat would not be able to do anything by going underground.
The notification signed by the then home ministry public security division secretary Jahangir Alam said that in the verdict of several cases given by the International Criminal Tribunal, Jamaat and its affiliated bodies were charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the War of Independence in 1971.
It also mentioned that the Election Commission had cancelled the registration of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami as a political party following a High Court judgement on a writ petition.
The home ministry order also mentioned that the Appellate Division also upheld the High Court judgement.
Referring to the student protests, the order said that the government had ample evidence that Jamaat and its affiliate Shibir were directly involved in or incited the recent killings, destructive activities, and terror activities.
The Election Commission on October 29, 2018, scrapped the registration of Jamaat, a long-time ally of then main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, following the High Court verdict that declared Jamaat鈥檚 registration illegal.
On August 1, 2013, the High Court, in a verdict, declared Jamaat鈥檚 registration with the Election Commission illegal.
Rezaul Haque Chandpuri, then secretary general of the Bangladesh Tariqat Federation, an ally of the ruling Awami League, and 24 others filed a writ petition with the High Court on January 25, 2009, seeking the declaration of Jamaat鈥檚 registration as illegal.
The petitioners argued that Jamaat was a religion-based political party and did not believe in the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh.
Jamaat later filed an appeal with the Appellate Division, challenging the High Court verdict in which the Appellate Division upheld the High Court verdict, declaring Jamaat鈥檚 registration illegal.
Jamaat was founded by Islamist thinker Sayyid Abul A鈥檒a Maududi in 1941 in undivided India under British colonial rule.
Jamaat was banned twice, in 1959 and 1964, during the Pakistani era.
The government of independent Bangladesh had banned five communal outfits, including Jamaat, which not only opposed the nation鈥檚 independence but also actively helped Pakistan鈥檚 occupation forces commit genocide and other crimes against humanity.
The banned parties were allowed in politics during the rule of the late president Ziaur Rahman, who ruled Bangladesh between 1975 and 1981.
Five leaders of the Jamaat, which shared power with the BNP between 2001 and 2006, were executed for committing crimes against humanity during the War of Independence.
Jamaat had representation in Jatiya Sangsad after winning seats in the 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2009 parliamentary polls.
The Awami League, Jamaat, and several other political parties waged a joint movement in 1996, demanding general elections under a party-neutral caretaker administration.
