The interim government does not have any plan to lift bans on extremist groups, said the Chief Adviser's (CA) Press Wing on Sunday.
In a post on its official Facebook page, the Press Wing said: “Extremist outfits Hizb ut-Tahrir and Ansarullah Bangla Team are banned in Bangladesh. The Interim Government led by Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has a zero-tolerance policy towards all extremist groups in the country.
"Our attention has been drawn to a recent Tweet by writer Taslima Nasreen. She falsely claimed early this week that the Interim Government had lifted the ban on the two groups.”
This clarification comes in response to a social media post by exiled writer Taslima Nasreen, who alleged that the interim government had lifted the ban on these groups.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organization banned in 2009, took out processions in the capital on August 5, the day of the fall of the Awami League government following a mass uprising.
They claim that the activists of the organization were in the field with the students and people in the movement to topple the Sheikh Hasina government. Recently, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka, the organization also demanded the withdrawal of the ban.
However, several advisers recently said the government had no plans to lift the ban on Hizb ut-Tahrir while counter-terrorism teams arrested some of its operatives, including the media wing coordinator, Imtiaz Selim.
In 2015, the then AL government banned Ansarullah Bangla Team for its militant and anti-state activities, including murder of war crimes trial campaigners, and secularist writers and publishers.
Meanwhile, Ansarullah Bangla Team's alleged chief Jasimuddin Rahmani, who was released from jail after the fall of the Awami League government, appeared in a YouTube talk show recently and claimed that he knew nothing about such a militant group.
He said the previous government harassed him and kept him in jail since 2013, for speaking in favor of Islam.
Last week, police strengthened security outside four media outlets in Dhaka after Rahmani's threat to besiege the offices, alleging that those newspapers wrote against him being pursued by the fascist regime.
The other militant outfits that were banned by the previous governments include Ansar al-Islam Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), Jagrata Muslim Janata of Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul Jihad Al Islami Bangladesh (HujiB), and Shahadat-e Al-Hikma.
