Ban on Jamaat, Shibir lifted after four weeks

The interim administration has lifted the ban on all activities of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, four weeks after it was imposed by the then Sheikh Hasina government.

Just a few days before the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August, Jamaat was banned in Bangladesh for a second time. This ban was imposed under the Anti-Terrorism Act through an executive order amid the recent spate of violence and student protests.

A notification issued by the home ministry on 1 August said, "The government has sufficient information to prove that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its affiliate Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir were directly and indirectly involved in the recent massacres, destructive activities, and terrorist activities."

The same ministry issued a gazette notification today (28 August) lifting the ban, stating that no specific information was found regarding the involvement of Jamaat and Shibir in violence and terrorism.

A history of bans

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

The Supreme Court later upheld the verdict. 

In the petition, they said Jamaat was a religion-based political party and it did not believe in the independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh.

Jamaat, controversial for its anti-liberation role, was first banned in 1972 by a new constitutional provision that prohibited politics based on religion.

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

Things stayed as they were until General HM Ershad swept to power in a coup in 1982.

During this period, Jamaat began to gain muscle power, and after the dictatorship was ousted, the party, along with the AL and BNP, contested the 1991 election.

The party then secured 18 seats. It then extended support to the BNP to form the government.

By 1994, Jamaat was back on the streets, launching agitations against the BNP in alliance with the AL, Jatiya Party, and others, to push home the demand for an election-time non-partisan caretaker government.

It became a member of the liaison committee of opposition parties led by the AL.

The 1996 elections, which followed a  massive opposition movement, saw Jamaat secure only three seats. But in 2001, it fared better at the polls as part of the four-party alliance, which included the giant BNP.

The alliance won, and Jamaat secured 17 seats. 

The alliance received a drubbing in the very next elections to the Grand Alliance led by the Awami League. The 2008 election, a debacle for the BNP and its allies, was held after a two-year long emergency.

With the Awami League in power, the International Crimes Tribunal in several verdicts held Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, 1971.

A number of top Jamaat leaders would be executed for the war-time crimes.

The High Court in 2013 cancelled the party's registration.  Another chapter of the party, Jamaat-e-Islami (J&K), was banned in India in 2019. In Russia, the party has remained banned since 2003.

Islami Chhatra Sangha, Jamaat's student wing, was renamed Chhatra Shibir in 1977. It later became infamous for "cutting tendons" of rivals on campuses, especially at Rajshahi and Chittagong universities. Numerous students became victims of Shibir's reign of terror.