Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, has banned the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League under an anti-terrorism law, intensifying the country’s political crisis.
The decision, announced on Saturday evening, follows days of escalating tensions in Dhaka, where the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) has been staging protests since Thursday, demanding the ban.
The Council of Advisers, chaired by Yunus, declared that the ban would remain in place until the completion of the Awami League’s trial in the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), citing the need to protect the nation’s security and sovereignty.
“The official gazette notification will be issued in this regard on the next working day,” Yunus’s office said in a statement, describing it as a “statement of the Council of Advisers” or the Cabinet.
The statement said the Council had decided that the ban would remain effective until the trial of the Awami League and its leaders in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal is concluded, “in the interest of protecting the country’s security and sovereignty.”
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It also stated that the decision was taken to ensure the safety of leaders and activists of the July 2024 uprising that led to the ousting of the Awami League regime, as well as the complainants and witnesses involved in the tribunal proceedings.
The Council simultaneously amended the ICT law, enabling the tribunal to try any political party, its front organisations, and affiliated bodies, marking a significant escalation in the government’s crackdown on the Awami League.
Hasina’s 16-year-long regime was toppled on 5 August last year following a violent, student-led mass uprising, forcing the 77-year-old former prime minister to flee to India. Just three days after her ouster, Yunus assumed the role of chief adviser of the interim government.
Since then, Hasina and many of her party’s leaders have faced hundreds of cases, including charges of mass murder and corruption. Most of her ministers and senior party officials have either been arrested or fled abroad.
The NCP, which grew out of the Students against Discrimination (SAD) movement that led last year’s uprising against Hasina’s government, has become a formidable political force, aligning itself with various Islamist and right-wing groups to push for the ban. Media reports indicated that NCP supporters were joined by these groups during sit-ins near Shahbagh, a central area in Dhaka, as they marched towards Yunus’s official residence to escalate pressure on the interim administration.
However, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Awami League’s main political rival, has distanced itself from the move, stating that it opposes the banning of any political party, signalling a potential rift within the broader opposition landscape.
Founded in 1949, the Awami League played a pivotal role in the decades-long struggle for the autonomy of Bengalis in the then East Pakistan, ultimately leading the Liberation War of 1971 that gave birth to the nation of Bangladesh.
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