Police in Bangladesh arrested Jamaat-e-Islami party chief Shafiqur Rahman in Dhaka. As head of the country’s largest Islamist party, Rahman had vowed to join anti-government protests led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to oust the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
A number of Jamaat-e-Islami members were convicted of committing war crimes during Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 by the International Crimes Tribunal in 2009. Later, five of its top leaders were hanged between 2013 and 2016 for committing war crimes.
Considered far-right radical, the organisation’s fronts in India and Sri Lanka have been flagged as security threats in South Asia.
In Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami has been banned from contesting elections since 2012. Previously, the Jamaat was a major ally of the right-of-centre main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and their coalition ruled the country between 2001-2006.
“This is just another episode of the unjust oppression continuing against the party for the last 15 years,” Matiur Rahman Akand, Jamaat-e-Islami’s publicity secretary, told AFP.
Bangladesh’s current political climate
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), country’s principal opposition party, has demanded that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should step down and for a caretaker government to conduct free and fair elections. The opposition alleges that the past two general elections in 2014 and 2018 were rigged and that they do not trust Hasina administration’s conduct and if will hold fair elections. Jamaat and several left-leaning and centrist parties have supported BNP’s demands. They also announced they would hold protests jointly with the BNP.
The BNP has also demanded the release of Khaleda Zia, the 76-year-old party head and two-time prime minister who has been in jail since being convicted on two counts of corruption in 2018. Protests sparked by an ongoing economic crisis, which has seen power cuts and fuel price hikes, have erupted across the country in recent months.
Fifteen foreign embassies, including Washington’s envoy in Dhaka, as well as the United Nations have expressed concerns over the political climate in Bangladesh, one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia.
Bangladesh will hold its next general election in the first week of January in 2024, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the leader of Awami League had announced.
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