A Canadian Federal Court has once again labelled the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the major opposition parties in Bangladesh, as a terrorist organisation while dismissing the review of the refugee claim by one of its activists.
With this review, the Canadian court so far termed the BNP as a terrorist organisation for the fifth time.
The Canadian court came up with the review when a BNP activist named Mohammad Zips-d Ibn-Haque had sought political asylum in the country. But the court rejected his appeal mentioning that BNP is a terrorist organisation.
The Canadian Federal Court observed that there were reasonable grounds to believe that BNP has been engaged or will engage in acts of terrorism.
According to the verdict, the man (BNP activist Mohammad Zipsed-Ibn-Haque) was involved with such an organisation that has forcibly been trying to overthrow a democratic government through violence and terrorism.
On June 15 this year, while deciding a judicial review application, the court judge termed BNP as a terrorist organisation. The judicial review was filed against the rejection of the BNP activist's appeal for political asylum.
Mohammad Zipsed-Ibn-Haque had sought political asylum in Canada pretending him to be a victim of political revenge in Bangladesh. In that judgment review, the Federal Court of the country mentioned that the applicant was a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party from 2011 to 2015.
The verdicts also mentioned that the Canadian immigration authorities have found reasonable grounds to believe that the BNP is an organisation that has engaged in violence and sabotage to try to oust the legitimate Awami League government.
In the court review the criteria for the rejection of the appeal of the BNP activists also considered the rejection of the political asylum requests of other BNP activists including Masood Rana in 2018 and Salim in 2022. Even at that time, the request for political asylum of those two Bangladeshis was cancelled citing BNP as a terrorist organisation.
Earlier in 2022, the Canadian court rejected an asylum plea of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activist Selim Bashar and termed the BNP a terrorist organisation.
In 2018, the Canadian court termed the BNP as a terrorist organisation again when a BNP activist named Mostofa Kamal had sought political asylum in Canada.
In the same year in 2018, the Canadian court rejected another appeal of BNP activist Masud Rana seeking political asylum and had termed BNP as a terrorist organisation.
Earlier in 2017, BNP was termed as a terrorist organisation by the Canadian court for the first time when Mohammad Jewel Hossain Gazi, an activist of the Jatiyatabadi Swechchhasebak Dal, an associate organisation of BNP, in Gazipur of Bangladesh, had sought political asylum from the Canadian government.
In the review, the court had rejected his appeal terming the BNP as a terrorist organisation.
