A Bangladesh in transition does not need a resurgent Jamaat-e-Islami

The Awami League government made a lot of mistakes. De-listing Jamaat-e-Islami is not one.

In fact, the Awami League government didn’t even make the decision to de-list Jamaat as a political party.

A group of Bangladeshi citizens filed the petition against Jamaat in 2013. Their petition was heard by a high court, which decided in favor of the petitioners against Jamaat. Jamaat’s legal team appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the high court’s decision to de-list Jamaat.

We all know what Jamaat did when they didn’t get their way. Look it up if you can’t remember.

Now that the armed forces decided to brief Jamaat on the transition-in-power, the reprisals and communal violence has begun, and activists are telling us “what you need now is a Jamaat government”, it makes sense to consider whether the original case against Jamaat remains relevant today.

Supreme court advocate Tania Amir represented the petitioners in 2013. Her father is M Amir-ul Islam, who drafted the declaration of independence, and helped draft the constitution. Although her family supported the Awami League, government did not request her to take up the case. She took it up independently.

Full disclosure: I’ve met Amir. We’ve talked about it. She is not an Awami League apologist. She’s a patriot though...

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