‘If Bangladesh can find room for Jamaat, it should be able to find room for Awami League voters’: Analyst

London: Bangladesh’s leaders must recognise that governing carries responsibility even for those who despise them, while prisoners require medical care, allegations against political opponents must be investigated, and courts must rely on evidence. None of these obligations disappears after a revolution, according to a latest report.

It noted that the danger lies in a “dystopian future” where the language of liberation is used to justify repression and the language of justice masks revenge, reducing rights to favours and allowing political labels to determine whose suffering matters.

Writing in UK-based media website ‘Comment Central’ recently, political and security expert Chris Blackburn said that the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, which came to power after the July 2024 protests, failed to safeguard people against arbitrary detention, while those who had themselves depended on bail and demanded due process presided over a system denying such protections to political opponents.

Highlighting that arbitrary detention has persisted beyond the interim administration, Blackburn cited Human Rights Watch’s August 2026 report, which said hundreds of people associated with the former Awami League government remained jailed without charge. He said that the rights body also expressed concerns over deaths in custody and allegations that detainees were denied medical treatment.

Referring to lawyers, Blackburn said some clients were even advised against seeking bail as police allegedly responded by filing fresh cases.

“What does the right to bail mean if exercising it opens another route back to prison? The people occupying the chairs have changed. The willingness to deny opponents the protections once demanded for oneself remains,” he noted.

According to the expert, Bangladesh needs the support of its genuine friends, but that can only come through an honest reckoning with its past and a consistent commitment to its future.

Justice for the victims of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War was not merely necessary — it was their right and a need for the nation itself, he added.

“The crimes committed during the Liberation War could not simply be buried because bringing them to court was politically difficult. Equally, the importance of that history never relieved a court of its obligation to conduct a fair trial,” Blackburn stated.

He further noted that Jamaat-e-Islami’s return to electoral politics following the restoration of its registration in 2025 demonstrates how political exclusion can be reversed.

Despite its opposition to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, he said, Jamaat has been rehabilitated into the political process, highlighting the country’s capacity to accommodate even deeply contested political forces.

Asserting that political inclusion cannot be selective, Blackburn said, “If Bangladesh can find room for Jamaat, it should be able to find room for Awami League voters.”

He also urged Britain, Europe and other countries to push for credible trials, an end to arbitrary detention, safeguards for journalists and minorities, and room for peaceful political opposition in Bangladesh, stressing that such standards must remain intact regardless of who is in power.

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