Chicago – July 20, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of supporters from Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, gathered in the capital on Saturday to show their strength before the country’s next election, expected next year. The rally comes at a critical time for Bangladesh, which is facing a major political shift after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was removed from power.
An interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, announced that the election would take place in April, though it has not ruled out the possibility of holding it in February. This earlier date has been strongly requested by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies.
Jamaat-e-Islami, which had supported Pakistan during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971, had aimed to gather 1 million people at Saturday’s rally.
Hasina led the country from 2009 until she was overthrown last year in protests led by students. After her removal, she fled to India, and many top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami were either executed or imprisoned.
At the rally, Jamaat-e-Islami presented a seven-point list of demands to the Yunus-led government. These include ensuring free and fair elections, providing justice for victims of mass killings, implementing important reforms, and creating a new plan based on last year’s mass protests. The party also called for a proportional representation system in the election.
