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Bangladesh floods Dhaka with troops as banned Awami League marks 77th anniversary

The BNP government deploys the army across six districts and arrests dozens; the home minister says 'there is no organisation by the name of Awami League'

首脳·司法· worsening 誰が決めるのか·語られていないこと ·6 論調 · ·rbtfl 更新 2026年6月28日

Summary

Bangladesh's BNP-led government, under PM Tarique Rahman, saturated Dhaka with security as the banned Awami League tried to mark its 77th founding anniversary on June 23. The army was deployed in six districts, Dhaka, Chattogram, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Gopalganj and Faridpur, through June 30, alongside some 18,000 police and over 200 checkpoints in the capital. Police arrested 26 alleged activists in Dhaka and more elsewhere. Two Awami League activists had died in the days before, one in police custody in Faridpur on June 20, another after a police chase in Barishal on June 21. Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed dismissed the party outright: "There is no organisation by the name of Awami League." The ban, imposed by the Muhammad Yunus interim government in May 2025, was later endorsed by parliament.

The split

The party's own outlet (albd.org) and exile leader Sheikh Hasina cast the lockdown as the paranoia of a government afraid of a rival it claims is dead. Indian outlets (The Federal, Deccan Herald) add a geopolitical worry: erasing the secular, pro-Liberation Awami League could tilt Bangladesh toward a Jamaat-aligned Islamist politics on India's border. Dhaka's government frames it as enforcing a lawful ban pending war-crimes trials, not political persecution. Each omits the other's core claim.

By the numbers

  • 6, districts where the army was deployed through June 30.
  • ~18,000, police mobilised in Dhaka, with 200-plus checkpoints.
  • 26, alleged activists arrested in Dhaka alone on the anniversary.
  • 2, Awami League activists who died June 20 and 21 before the date.
  • May 2025, when the Yunus interim government first banned the party.

Why it matters

Bangladesh's new rulers are moving from defeating the Awami League at the ballot box to erasing it as a legal entity, a test of whether the post-Hasina order builds a plural democracy or simply inverts the old one-party reflex. The outcome reshapes a 175-million state and unsettles India, which is watching its eastern flank.

What to watch

  • Whether parliament formalises a permanent ban or the courts narrow it.
  • The pace of the war-crimes trials cited as the ban's legal basis.
  • Further deaths in custody or chases, and how the security forces are held to account.
  • Any Awami League regrouping under a new name or in exile.