DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim government says it has no plans to ban the political party of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, putting it at odds with the student revolutionaries who overthrew her in an uprising last year.

Hasina’s Awami League was accused of extensive human rights abuses during her 15-year tenure, including a violent crackdown on last year’s protest movement that killed more than 800 people.

Student leaders still grieving the deaths of their comrades have demanded the party be outlawed. But Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the de facto leader of the caretaker government that took office after her toppling, said it had no intention of doing so.

“Professor Yunus stated that the interim government has no plans to ban the party,” said a government statement issued late Thursday. “However, individuals within its leadership who are accused of crimes, including murder and crimes against humanity, will be tried in Bangladesh’s courts.”

A tribunal in Dhaka has already issued arrest warrants for Hasina, who took refuge in India after her toppling, and her allies.

A fact-finding mission from the UN rights office said last month that her government was responsible for systematic attacks and killings of protesters in an attempt to hold onto power last year. It found “reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, imprisonment, and the infliction of other inhumane acts have taken place”.

Since she was toppled, students have consistently demanded the party be banned ahead of elections for a new government, exp­ec­ted by June next year.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2025