Student group banned as criminal cases against members mount

Bangladesh’s interim government last week banned the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student organisation backed by the Awami League (AL) party of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina. BCL members are accused of carrying out attacks and even killings during the July-August student-led uprising, and of instigating campus-based violence over the last 15 years.

The ban comes as criminal cases have been filed with police involving hundreds of BCL students and activists for specific crimes during the uprising. Arrests of several BCL members have already been made, some at students’ exam venues.

The decision on 23 October to ban BCL under the country’s 2009 Anti-Terrorism Act came after demands from the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement which led the July-August uprising.

Barring the BCL was one of five demands from the movement that also included abolishing the current constitution and removing the country’s president Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Most top BCL leaders have already gone into hiding due to fear of reprisals and arrests. But the ban has heightened concerns among ordinary activists, many of whom were not directly involved in any violence.

Mixed reaction to ban

There has been a mixed reaction to the ban. Students supporting the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement were euphoric. But regular students who are also members or supporters of BCL say they face uncertainty over their academic futures.

A masters student in the history department at Dhaka University (DU), speaking anonymously, told University World News: “I was never involved in any kind of attacks. I was compelled to join the Chhatra League just to secure a hall seat,” a reference to the control over student accommodation wielded by BCL groups on campus.

“Now that we are labelled a banned organisation, I can’t go to university; anyone could arrest me,” the student noted.

Nusrat Tabassum, one of the national coordinators of the Students Against Discrimination Movement, said she was happy about the BCL ban.

“Today, Bangladesh and Dhaka University have been freed from stigma … Leaders and activists of other student organisations should take lessons from it, and I hope they will stay alongside general students [those without political affiliations],” she told University World News on the day the ban was announced and came into immediate effect.

Government notification

The Home Ministry’s gazetted notification of the ban on the 76-year-old pro-Awami League student organisation cited evidence that BCL had been involved in various “conspiratorial, subversive and terrorist activities against the state” since the fall of the Hasina government on 5 August.

It added BCL, a “brotherly” organisation of Awami League, was involved in crimes that included murder, torture and oppression of students.”

BCL also took part in trading dormitory places, manipulated tenders, raped and sexually harassed women, and committed other crimes after the country’s independence (in 1971), particularly in the last 15 years of the AL’s autocratic rule, the notification alleged.

Information about and evidence of these crimes had appeared extensively in the media, it said. The notification also said that the involvement of some BCL leaders and activists in criminal activities had been proved in court.

During the student demonstrations in July this year, BCL leaders indiscriminately attacked protesting students and the general public, killing hundreds, the notification added.

On the night the ban was published, a statement signed by BCL President Saddam Hossain and general secretary Sheikh Wali Asif Enan and shared on the verified Facebook page of the Awami League was sent to different media outlets, rejecting the move and demanding the resignation of the interim government, terming it “illegal and unconstitutional”.

The statement said that in January 1948 the Chhatra League had played a significant role in the country's liberation war and other campaigns and movements including the ouster of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad and his military dictatorship in 1990.

University World News attempted several phone calls to the BCL president and general secretary for a response, but their mobile phones were switched off.

Ongoing cases and arrests

A large number of cases against BCL members were filed with police before and after the ban was announced, with arrests of BCL students ongoing, including while some were sitting exams.

On 21 October a criminal case was filed with Shahbag police station, close to DU, in connection with 15 July attacks on the DU campus.

The case, filed by Mahin Sarkar, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement who had also came under attack by BCL students on that day, was against 391 leaders of the Awami League, the Jubo league (the youth wing of the Awami League) and the BCL, including ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

On 27 October, another criminal charge was filed against 220 named and 150-200 unidentified BCL leaders and activists in connection with the 15 July attack on agitating students on the DU campus. At the time, the clashes escalated the movement against the then Hasina government.

Plaintiff Arman Hossain, a key coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, told media he filed the second case because a number of key attackers’ names were missing in the 21 October case.

Medical school suspensions

On 27 October the authorities at Chattogram Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) suspended 75 students, including 14 medical interns from different academic years for their alleged involvement in “anti-disciplinary activities”. College sources said all were BCL members.

Brigadier General Mohammad Taslim Uddin, director of CMCH, told the media the decision was based on the recommendations of an investigation committee.

The punishment was meted out after the allegations were proved. Some were expelled for six months to two years for activities that included illegally occupying university dormitories and engaging in violence.

Arrests of students

Two BCL activists of DU – Abul Hasan Saidi, a finance student, and Kazi Shihab Uddin Taimur, an anthropology student – were arrested while taking exams at the university on 25 October.

“There were cases against the two students, and they were arrested accordingly,” the university’s Proctor Saifuddin Ahmed told the media.

At Rajshahi Government Women’s College this week, BCL environment secretary Jannatul Ferdous Tamanna Priya was beaten by students and later arrested by police when she went to sit an exam at the college.

Sabina Yasmin, additional deputy commissioner (media) of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said Priya was arrested in an alleged explosives case filed with police.

Mahir Shahriar Reza, Bangladesh Chhatra Union president, said: “Chhatra League members who have no connection to criminal activities and who are compelled to join the organisation should not be treated the same as those who are involved in such activities.”

Reza and Bangladesh Chhatra Federation President Mashiur Rahman Khan both told University World News action should be taken against BCL members who face specific allegations of attacking, killing and others, and trials should take place.

“In the last 15 years of ‘fascist’ rule, the Chhatra League established a reign of terror in educational institutions across the country,” Khan said, pointing to BCL as the main partner in suppressing the summer students’ uprising.

“There is a desire among the people to ensure the trial of all those who took part … and [to] ban Chhatra League,” Khan noted.

“The decision of banning Chhatra League is justified at this time. But we think that the judicial process should be completed within six months so that banning Chhatra League gains acceptance at the national and international level,” Khan added.