Staff Correspondent:

The countrymen have felt relief as the government has banned all activities of Awami League, the party of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in the face of a student-led uprising last year.

“The countrymen have positively accepted the banning of Awami League, though there are some different opinions, but it is not considered significant,” Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to the chief adviser, said while addressing a programme at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Monday.

The interim cabinet, headed by Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, decided to ban the Awami League under the Anti-Terrorism Act, late on Saturday.

The ban will remain in place until the trial of the party and its leaders over the deaths of hundreds of protesters under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, or ICT Act, is completed.

Referring to a report of the United Nations, Shafiqul said, “The Awami League government killed 1,400 people (according to our data, this number is even higher) during the mass upsurge, but they did not express minimum repentance.”

He also blamed the defeated Awami League for killing people randomly, branding them militants during its prolonged stay in power.

The minimum salary of a journalist must be Tk30,000

While talking about the amenities of the journalists, Shafiqul, who previously served as the bureau chief for Bangladesh at AFP, criticised the journalists’ unions for their inaction and failure in playing an effective role to ensure due facilities for the journalists.

“They were busy securing plots at Purbachal (new town project) over the past 15 years instead of raising their voices for the journalists’ welfare,” he said.

He said a journalist must be paid a minimum monthly salary of Tk 30,000 to uphold the dignity of the profession and the newspaper owners unable to meet the standard should stop their publication.