Bangladesh's interim government on Saturday imposed a ban on all activities of the former ruling Awami League party, led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted last year following a mass uprising.
Asif Nazrul, the country's law affairs adviser, announced late Saturday that the interim Cabinet, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, had decided to prohibit the party's activities both online and offline under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act.
The ban will remain in effect until a special tribunal completes its trial of the party and its leaders over the deaths of hundreds of students and protesters during the anti-government uprising in July and August of the previous year.
"This decision is aimed at ensuring national security and sovereignty, protecting activists of the July movement, and safeguarding plaintiffs and witnesses involved in the tribunal proceedings," Nazrul told reporters after a special Cabinet meeting.
Nazrul said the meeting Saturday also expanded the scope for trying any political parties involved in charges of killing during the anti-Hasina protests being handled by the International Crimes Tribunal.
He said a government notification regarding the ban would be published soon with details.
Hasina and many of her senior party colleagues have been accused of murder in several cases following her ouster last year. Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, after her official residence was stormed by protesters soon after she left the country.
The United Nations Human Rights Office, in a report from February, said up to 1,400 people may have been killed during three weeks of anti-Hasina protests.
Saturday night's dramatic decision came after thousands of protesters, including supporters of a newly formed political party by students, took to the streets in Dhaka and issued an ultimatum to ban the Awami League party by Saturday night. Members of the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party also prominently took part in the protest.
There was no immediate reaction from Hasina or her party, but Nahid Islam, chief of the National Citizens Party and a student leader, applauded the Yunus-led government for its decision.
The student-led uprising ended Hasina's 15 years of rule, and three days after her fall, Yunus took the helm as interim leader.
