It is a big sigh of relief that the Awami League government has finally been able to shed passivity and taken timely actions to ban the politics of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir in the country.
The Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday issued a gazette notification, imposing embargo on Jamaat, Chhatra Shibir and other associated organizations. This has followed an executive order under Section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009.
However, in a knee jerk reaction, Jamaat Ameer Shafiqur Rahman strongly condemned and protested the ban describing it as against the country's constitution which, he said, gives the right to all citizens to hold meetings and rallies and establish a political party of their choice.
But Jamaat Ameer's this statement doesn't hold water. It is because almost cent percent of general people of the country are in view that any group, organization or party that had betrayed the country can't be a political entity by any means. It is easy to assume that if you can't admit the existence of a nation, how can you demand to exercise the right to do politics in that nation?
This is why Jamaat has long been considered a real thorn in the flesh of Bangladesh due to its anti-state politics through its sinister designs both at home and outside the country. And its recent uprising in the guise of student quota protesters had prompted the ruling party and its allies to prohibit this Islamist party.
But doing away with Jamaat and its other associates doesn't mean that they are erased and eliminated from the soil of Bangladesh forever. There is every possibility that they could go underground and rear their head again, taking advantage of any untoward situation in the country.
Unfortunately, until now Jamaat regained such strength and became a player in our alienated polities due to direct support from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party that has been condoning all sorts of Jamaat's destructive activities since BNP founder, Ziaur Rahman, rehabilitated Jamaat after the assassination of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
Even, Begum Khalida Zia went one step further when Jamaat leaders became ministers during two terms of the BNP-led governments with Khaleda Zia as prime minister from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to 2006.
Truly, Jamaat, BNP are opposite sides of the same coin. They have been organizing similar political programs simultaneously with the attempt of destabilizing the country. Most recently, BNP-Jamaat marauding hordes tried to fish in troubled waters when their activists were initially lurking among the student protesters against job quota system and suddenly emerged as kingmakers to turn the peaceful movement into violent activities. And they were somehow successful to unleash a reign of terror across the country.
We urge the government to be prepped and to take pre-emptive measures if banned Jamaat activists try to re-organize and re-group in order to destabilize the country.
