DHAKA, Jan 4: All the Islamic political parties of Bangladesh should drop the name of Islam from their name and should stop using religion during campaigning, Law Minister Ahmad Shafique said on Monday.

He said this following a Supreme Court ruling on Sunday, which upheld a 2005 ruling by the high court throwing out the fifth amendment of the constitution, which had allowed religion-based politics to flourish in the country since the late 1970s.

“All politics based on religion are going to be banned as per the original constitution,” Ahmed said. The …

Bangladesh is dropped from the US watch list on religious freedoms.  The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), government aided panel had placed Bangladesh on the list of countries deemed to violate minorities’ right to religious freedom for the past three years from 2005 to 2008.
The Commission in its latest report released in Washington this past week noted that the election held last year end has brought about some qualitative difference. It asked Washington to encourage the new government in Dhaka to take early action on certain issues.
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