DHAKA: Bangladesh`s election commission has suspended the registration of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina`s political party, barring its participation in future polls, a decision described as `concerning` by India on Tuesday.

It came after the interim government of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus banned the Awami League party on Sunday, pending the outcome of a trial over its crackdown on mass protests that prompted Hasina`s ouster last year. The Awami League is the oldest political party in Bangladesh.

According to the United Nations, up to 1,400 protesters died in July-August 2024, when Hasina`s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the opposition.

Hasina, 77, remains in self-imposed exile in India and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka over charges of crimes against humanity. `The ban on the Awami League is a concerning development,` Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told reporters in New Delhi.

`We strongly support the holding of free, fair and inclusive elections in Bangladesh.` Akhtar Ahmed, senior secretary of the Bangladesh Election Commission, said the suspension followed a recommendation from the home ministry.

`The home ministry has imposed a ban on all sorts of organisational activities of the Bangladesh Awami League and the organisations aligned with it,` he told reporters.

`In continuation of that decision, the election commission has decided to suspend the AL`s registration with the commission.

Yunus, 84, has said parliamentary elections will be held as early as December, and by June 2026 at the latest.-AFP