Bangladesh's new home minister Sakhawat Hossain on Monday said the Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus-led new interim government, now running the country, had no intention of banning ousted premier Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party.
Addressing the reports about a possible ban on Hasina's political outfit, the violence-hit South Asian country's new Home Minister Sakhawat Hossain said, "The party has made many contributions to Bangladesh -- we don't deny this"
"When the election comes, (they should) contest the elections," Sakhawat Hossain was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
This comes a week after Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a dramatic turn of events. The 76-year-old leader resigned as prime minister on August 5 and fled to India as protesters flooded the capital Dhaka's streets to her iron-fisted rule. Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents, during her 15-year rule.
The military announced her resignation and agreed protesting students' demand to appoint Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus as a leader of the caretaker government. Muhammad Yunus returned from Europe on Thursday to lead a temporary administration facing the monumental challenge of ending disorder and enacting democratic reforms. Yunus, 84, took office as "chief advisor" to a caretaker administration, comprised of fellow civilians bar one retired brigadier-general, and has said he wants to hold elections "within a few months".