Bangladesh: Interim govt bans Awami League-backed students' organisation

Dhaka, Oct 23 (PTI) Bangladesh's interim government on Wednesday banned ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League party's student organisation Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), caving in to demands from the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement which demanded a ban on the student body.

A notification signed by Senior Secretary Md Abdul Momen of the Public Security Division under the Ministry of Home Affairs said the student body over the past 15 years under the Awami League government was involved in various activities that disrupted public safety, including murder, rape, torture, harassment in student dormitories, and tender manipulation.

The notification said there was sufficient evidence indicating the student body continued to engage in conspiratorial, destructive, and provocative activities against the State even after the fall of the Awami League government.

Hasina on August 5 fled to India in the face of violent protests against her government, leading to the death of hundreds of people since mid-July.

During the Anti-Discrimination movement, BCL leaders and activists attacked protesting students and the general public with arms, killing hundreds of innocent people and endangering the lives of many more people, the notification said.

The government has sufficient evidence that even after the fall of the Awami League government, the Bangladesh Chhatra League has been involved in conspiratorial, destructive and provocative activities against the State, it said.

Consequently, the interim government declared a ban on Bangladesh Chhatra League under Section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, it said, adding the organisation was listed as a banned entity with immediate effect.

"The ban will come into effect immediately," read the notification.

The order came a day after protesters from the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement on Tuesday laid a five-point demand, including the scrapping of Bangladesh’s Constitution, President Shahabuddin’s removal, and a ban on the Chhatra League.

"Bangladesh and Dhaka University are now free from stigma. We would like to thank the interim government," said Nusrat Tabassum, a coordinator of the student movement, at Raju Sculpture of the country’s premier university.

The 76-year-old BCL, born as a student grouping at the Dhaka University campus in 1948, a year ahead of Awami League’s emergence as a political party, was officially a “brotherly” or “fraternal” organisation of Awami League while it was regarded as the party’s student wing. PTI