Bangladesh extends armed forces’ judicial powers: Yunus urges ‘patience’ after 100 days in power

DHAKA: Bangladesh´s interim government has extended the judicial powers of the armed forces granted after the August revolution that toppled ex-leader Sheikh Hasina.

The government order, issued on November 15, extends for two more months the powers of the armed forces to engage in day-to-day enforcement activities like the police, including making arrests.

“The armed forces will carry out the orders assigned to us by the government,” army spokesman Sami-Ud-Daula Chowdhury said on Sunday.

Since then, a caretaker government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has been tasked with implementing democratic reforms and holding elections.

The army was brought in to restore security with many people having lost confidence in the police.

Only officers with the rank of captain or above are authorised to make an arrest, high court lawyer Imam Hasan Tareq said on Sunday.

The powers have been extended to include the coastguard and border security units.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh´s interim leader Muhammad Yunus begged the country´s “patience” to prepare for much-awaited elections in a speech to the nation marking 100 days in power since a student-led revolution.

The 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was appointed to lead the government as “chief adviser” on August 9, days after the student-led uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina´s 15 years of iron-fisted rule.

Yunus, a microfinance pioneer, is leading a temporary administration, to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions in the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.

Vowing an election commission will be formed “within a few days”, Yunus said he could not give a timeframe for elections, saying it was dependent on a raft of election and constitutional reforms.“I promise that we will hold the much-anticipated election once the necessary and essential reforms are complete,” he said in the broadcast.

“I request your patience until then. We aim to build an electoral system that will endure for decades. For this, we need some time.”

Yunus said his administration was also focused on ensuring those guilty of cracking down on the protests to oust Hasina faced justice, and said he had spoken to Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

“We have already taken initiatives to try those responsible for enforced disappearances, murders, and the mass killings during the July-August uprising,” Yunus said.

Crisis Group analyst Thomas Kean has called the challenge facing Yunus “monumental”, warning of that “cracks are emerging in the fragile alliance” that pushed him into power.

“For now, Yunus and his colleagues have widespread support, but popular expectations are double-edged”, the thinktank said in report on Thursday.

“If the interim administration falters in making reforms, the outcome is likely to be an early election with little progress; in the worst-case scenario, the military could assume power.”