A group of students and youths under the banners of the Private University National Association of Bangladesh and the July Revolutionary Alliance on Monday celebrated the ban on all activities of the Bangladesh Awami League by organising a programme at Shahbagh in the capital Dhaka.
The programme, jointly organised by PUNAB and JRA, comprised of cultural performances, documentary screenings and distribution of ‘bhuna khichuri’, a dish, among the participants and people.
Bangladesh interim government on the day issued a gazette notification imposing ban on all activities of AL and its affiliated, associate and like-minded organisations until the completion of the trials of the party and its leaders and activists at the International Crimes Tribunal.
PUNAB and JRA were among the organisations which joined the recent demonstrations pressing the interim government to ban and try the Awami League as political party, JRA spokesperson Mahmud Fantasir told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·, adding that the programme was organised to celebrate the ban.
‘We want to spread the message that there is no place for the Awami League in the country,’ said Fantasir.
PUNAB general secretary Arifin Rafi said that two cows and two goats were slaughtered in the morning to cook ‘bhuna khichuri’.
He also mentioned that the programme was supported by online activist Pinaki Bhattacharya.
The cultural section of the programme, comprising July uprising based songs, recitations and documentary screening, was anchored by Farhan Hasan Barno, founding member of PUNAB and joint member secretary of the Bangladesh Democratic Student Council.
Earlier on Saturday, the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus decided to ban the AL’s all activities after two days of street protests in Dhaka and other places.
PUNAB and JRA were founded after the student-led mass uprising that ousted the authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
