Skip to main content

Jamaat faces ban in wake of Bangladesh student unrest

MEMBERS of civil society clash with police, on Tuesday, during a song march for victims who were killed during the recent student protests in Bangladesh over quotas in government jobs.—AFP
MEMBERS of civil society clash with police, on Tuesday, during a song march for victims who were killed during the recent student protests in Bangladesh over quotas in government jobs.—AFP

DHAKA: Bangladesh will ban the country’s largest religious party Jamaat-i-Islaami and its student wing Shibir in the wake of this month’s deadly nationwide unrest, road transport minister Obaidul Quader told reporters on Tuesday.

Representatives of Bangladesh’s governing coalition “unanimously decided to ban Jamaat and Shibir, taking into consideration their past and present activities,” said Quader, who is also general secretary of the ruling Awami League.

Jamaat is already banned from contesting elections but the new order would outlaw the party and prevent it from holding any public gatherings. Party leader Shafiqur Rahman condemned the order as “illegal, beyond jurisdiction and anti-constitution”.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday condemned the “use of excessive” force against protesters in Bangladesh after days of violence that killed at least 206 people, according to the source count.

European Union slams ‘use of excessive force’ against protesters

The violence erupted after student rallies against civil service job quotas this month and the death toll based on police and hospital data includes several police officers. Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists of the ruling Awami League party.

Borrell expressed his deep concern over the deaths of officers as well as the “torture, mass arrests and damage to property that have taken place”.

He called for an investigation and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

“There must be full accountability for the numerous instances of use of excessive and lethal force by the law enforcement authorities against protesters and others,” he said in a statement.

“We will follow closely the actions of the authorities in the context of this crisis and, with the fundamentals of EU-Bangladesh relations in mind, expect all human rights to be fully respected,” he added.

‘Witch hunt’

More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the wake of the unrest, according to the Daily Star newspaper, prompting criticism from rights groups of the extent of the police dragnet.

“The mass arrest and arbitrary detention of student protesters is a witch hunt by the authorities to silence anyone who dares to challenge the government,” Amnesty International’s Smriti Singh said in a statement.

Troops are still patrolling urban areas and a nationwide curfew remains in force, but the latter has been progressively eased since the start of last week in a sign of the government’s confidence that it was in control.

Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis. Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists of the ruling Awami League.

The Supreme Court drastically cut the number of reserved jobs after the unrest but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the most contentious aspects of the system.

Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2024



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/UfVHyn1
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ailing Pope Francis to embark on Asia trip, his longest ever, in September

Pope Francis will travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore from September 2-13, the Vatican said on Friday, announcing his first overseas trip of the year and the longest of his 11-year papacy. The Asia trip has been on the papal agenda for some time, but there had been doubts on whether the 87-year-old pontiff would embark on it given his increasing frailty, with a record of skipping engagements due to health problems. His last international journey was a two-day stay in Marseille, France in September. In November, he pulled out of a trip to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai because of a lung inflammation . Francis is now scheduled to be in Jakarta between Sept 3-6, Port Moresby and Vanimo between Sept 6-9, Dili September. 9-11 and Singapore Sept 11-13, his spokesman said in a statement. Vietnam, which had been suggested by the pope and Vatican officials as a possible further destination during the nearly two-week long Asia trip, was not mentioned. In ...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘A war out there’: Maple Leafs survive shootout thriller in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Whew. They needed this one, even if they didn’t wholly deserve it. For a Monday night in Salt Lake City, the stakes felt unusually high for the sagging, road-weary Toronto Maple Leafs .  Heading into their inaugural game at Delta Center, the Leafs had dropped three straight, blown a couple leads, slipped out of first place, and  distracted  the fan base by propositioning their best player with a trade.  Worse: Their process hasn’t been tight for a couple weeks. Mistakes have crept in. Speed is giving their defence issues. And their razor-sharp goaltenders have begun to look human. Head coach Craig Berube held an intense team meeting Sunday, following Saturday’s 7-4 outclassing in Denver. Multiple players spoke up. Captain Auston Matthews said they’d reached look-in-the-mirror time. “The really bad games have a good way of being the biggest learning experiences,” thoughtful goaltender Joseph Woll said, following Monday’s slump-snuffing, nail-b...
Post a Comment
Read more

A diary of (near) default - 2023 was a year of economic uncertainty in Pakistan

Despite having little in common, even our political parties could agree on one thing: Pakistan’s economic situation was dire in 2023. The year saw Pakistan go through a long and rocky road to finding some semblance of economic stability — if it can even be called that — while weathering political and social turmoil. Pakistanis also experienced a double whammy this year: the one-two punches of the worst economic crisis in decades and all-time high inflation. Add to that the gut punch of the aftermath of the catastrophic floods of 2022 began to settle in. Flood victims receive boiled rice from relief workers, after taking refuge on a motorway, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Charsadda, Pakistan on August 27, 2022 — Reuters In 2023, according to the World Bank , over 39.4 per cent of the population fell below the poverty line, which means over 12.5 million people are living in meagre conditions. Additionally, 8.5 million people face acute food insecurity due ...
Post a Comment
Read more