Bangladesh on Thursday banned the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party, its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir and other associate organisations under the anti-terrorism law.
The ban will come into effect immediately, according to a gazette notification issued by the home ministry.
The government move came as the South Asian nation has been witnessing massive student protests since last month, which have led to the death of at least 150 people.
The move, decried as “unconstitutional and illegal” by the Jamaat-e-Islami, comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed it and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for violence that forced her to impose curfew.
In a statement issued earlier, the Jamaat had condemned the Awami League-led ruling alliance’s decision as “illegal, extrajudicial, and unconstitutional”.
“Using state machinery, they are playing a blame game against Jamaat and other opposition parties,” said Shafiqur Rahman, chief of the party, which, along with the opposition, had denied the government’s statement that they stoked violence.
Jamaat was effectively banned from contesting elections by a 2013 court decision that its registration as a political party conflicted with the South Asian nation’s secular constitution.
Bangladesh shut down the internet and sent the army to enforce a nationwide curfew as the demonstrations spread after they began in universities and colleges in June.
Thousands were injured as security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and lobbed sound grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who flooded into the streets.
The violence was the biggest test Hasina, 76, has faced since winning a fourth straight term in elections in January that were boycotted by BNP and also marred by deadly protests.
