Ousted Bangladeshi lawmaker and cricketer Shakib Al Hasan was granted permission on Wednesday to stay with the national team in Pakistan by the de facto leaders who removed his former boss. Shakib, a former captain of Bangladesh, became a lawmaker for ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party in January after elections that lacked genuine opposition. However, he lost his position after parliament was dissolved following Hasina’s abrupt resignation and departure to India amidst a student-led national uprising. One of the student leaders, 26-year-old Asif Mahmud, now serving as the de facto sports minister in an interim government, allowed Shakib to continue with the team despite his connections to Hasina and the Awami League.
“We presented the team to the sports adviser,” said Iftekhar Ahmed, a director of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), to AFP.
“He did not object to Shakib’s inclusion. He emphasized that the team should be selected based on merit.”
Mahmud played a crucial role in the protests that led to Hasina’s removal as part of the Students Against Discrimination group. He, along with fellow student leader Nahid Islam, are part of the advisory cabinet headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus that assumed power after Hasina’s exit.
Shakib, 37, was spotted training at the Gaddafi Cricket Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday by AFP. He had been absent since Hasina’s resignation and joined the Bangladeshi team in Pakistan directly from Canada, where he was participating in a Twenty20 competition.
‘Should have come home’
Although Shakib is usually active on Facebook, he has not made any public posts since July 14, prior to the onset of a violent police crackdown on the protests.
“Shakib cannot evade the responsibility of the mass killings as a lawmaker,” said former BCB board member Rafiqul Islam. He added, “When students were being killed, he remained silent. Many of these students saw him as an idol. He should have returned home first and provided an explanation for his silence.”
Rafiqul participated in a protest outside the BCB’s headquarters at Bangladesh’s main cricket venue, the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, demanding the removal of cricket board members aligned with Hasina.
“Mismanagement, autocratic behavior, and rampant corruption have hindered Bangladesh in world cricket,” the group stated in a Monday release.
Since Hasina’s escape on August 5, her party offices have been vandalized and set on fire, with many Awami League members going into hiding due to safety concerns.
Bangladesh’s courts, central bank, and other governmental institutions have been purged of Hasina supporters since Yunus’ interim government seized power.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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