The government has cancelled the registration of human rights organization Odhikar.

An order issued by the NGO Affairs Bureau of the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday said that the registration of Odhikar has been cancelled for a number of reasons, including engaging in activities that would tarnish the country’s image in the international arena.

The NGO Affairs Bureau rejected the organization’s application for extension of the registration.

The reasons of cancelling the registration of Odhikar are--not providing information required for registration and non-payment of increased fees and VAT imposed under the new law, no response or explanation for objections to eight financial audit reports of projects implemented with foreign grants and making issues against Bangladesh on its website and not responding appropriately to the intelligence agency’s report on variability in financial transactions in the three projects.

The order of NGO Affairs Bureau said that there is inconsistency in the application for renewal of registration submitted by the Odhikar as per Section 4 (4) of the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act 2016, incorrect reply of information sought at different times and failure to submit documents.

“The activities of the organization are not satisfactory due to its involvement in works that tarnishes the image of the state. Therefore, there is no opportunity to consider the application for renewal of the registration. The application for renewal registration is rejected.”

The registration of Odhikar was expired in March, 2015. Later, the organization applied for an extension of the registration for 10 years.