government bans Awami League youth wing

For the past 15 years, the Chhatra League has served as an instrument of repression for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party, and its members have been accused of dozens of very serious crimes. The student movement that caused the fall of the previous government had given the current Executive a week to ban the organization.

Dhaka () – The Bangladesh government has decided to ban the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), responding to pressure from the student movement that forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign. The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an official notice to impose the ban yesterday afternoon.

The decision was made after a press conference given by Hasnat Abdullah, coordinator of the protest movement, who pressured the government to act within 24 hours, in accordance with what the National Citizens Committee had requested.

The Ministry’s statement points out the participation of the Chhatra League (the youth section of the Awami League, the party of former Prime Minister Hasina), in activities dangerous to public security, such as murders, extortion, bid rigging, sexual assaults and other forms of violence. During the last 15 years of Awami League rule some members of the BCL were also involved in acts of terrorism.

The document refers to the role of the Chhatra League during the protests that began on July 15. The group’s armed attacks during the protests caused the death of numerous students and civilians, and even after the fall of the Executive, the organization continued with conspiratorial and terrorist activities against the State, forcing the current interim government headed by the Nobel Prize winner to intervene. Peace Muhammad Yunus.

During the press conference, Hasnat Abdullah warned Bangladesh’s interim government that if it did not intervene, new unrest would occur. “We demand that the caretaker government immediately ban the Chhatra League as a terrorist organization. We set a deadline a week ago and now there is only one day left.”

The Chhatra League of Bangladesh was born in 1948, a year before the Awami League, under the name of East Pakistan Muslim Chhatra League. In the early years he played a key role in Bangladesh’s war of independence, but was later the target of a series of accusations of serious crimes, including murder, rape and violent repression of student demonstrations.

In 2019, both the president and the general secretary of the organization were dismissed for corruption. Obaidul Quader, former leader of Chhatra League and current general secretary of Awami League, lamented the situation faced by the organisation. “We do not want – he stated – a Chhatra League involved in that type of actions.”

Analysts believe that the Chhatra League lost its autonomy and became an arm of the Awami League on university campuses during the Hasina government. At this time the BCL is perceived more as an extension of the Awami League than as an independent student organization.

A major problem has been the lack of periodic elections of its leaders. Councils, which had to be convened every three or four years, were held sporadically, and leaders were elected directly by the president of the Awami League, making the organization an instrument of the ruling party and more than a representation of the students. .

Despite numerous allegations, Chhatra League president Saddam Hossain and general secretary Sheikh Wali Asif Inan have long denied violence. In a press release they stated that the accusations were false and fabricated and defended the organization’s heritage: “Every corner of the 56,000 square kilometers of Bangladesh – they said – is stained with the sacred blood of the leaders and activists of the Chhatra League. “As long as Bangladesh exists, the Chhatra League will remain immortal and indestructible.”