Bangladesh to treat banned Jamaat-e-Islami as a terror organisation

Bangladesh has decided to treat outlawed Jamaat-e-Islami as a terror organization in the backdrop of their role in hijacking the recent student movement and promoting terror outfits in the past.

Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina on Thursday stated that she believed that the Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir may ‘go underground and engage in destructive activities’ after their ban and will have to be dealt with as a ‘militant group’.

“As militants, they will try and go underground and cause destruction,” Hasina said. “As such, we have to deal with them as a militant group and work together to protect the people.”


“There will be no place for militants on Bangladeshi soil. We will all have to be vigilant. I will ask the residents of our country to be alert. We want their support.”

Her remarks came at a voluntary blood donation programme, discussion, and prayer ceremony organised in Dhaka on Thursday.

The Bangladesh government is set to bar the party and its student wing under the Anti-Terrorism Act for what it says was their involvement in the recent violence surrounding the quota reform movement.

Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Huq has indicated that the ban, issued by executive order, would be announced in a notice soon.

In 1972, Jamaat was banned for the ‘misuse of religion for political purposes’. Now the party is being banned over their threat to security. It has also been banned from taking part in elections. Jamaat, which played a role against the 1971 independence movement, was later involved in promoting terror, including against India.