A year after expulsion, Ammar revealed as Shibir ‘Sathi’
Salahuddin Ammar, general secretary (GS) of the Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union (RUCSU), was a sathi of Islami Chhatra Shibir’s Rajshahi University unit.
The university unit expelled him from the organisation in September 2025 over various allegations, including moral misconduct, inappropriate socialising with women, selling organisational posts in exchange for money, negligence in performing fundamental religious duties, and illicit financial transactions.
The information has emerged from three organisational letters issued by the university unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir. Although the letters were not on Shibir’s official letterhead, several current leaders of the organisation confirmed the matter to Prothom Alo.
Two of the letters said that his status as a sathi was first suspended and later cancelled over the allegations. Another letter instructed Shibir members not to maintain any communication with him and not to exchange greetings with him if they happened to meet him.
After the contents of the letters became known on Wednesday, RUCSU GS Salahuddin Ammar posted a lengthy statement on his personal Facebook page disputing the allegations.
He said the allegations were false and that although various accusations had been made against him, no evidence had been provided. Ammar did not explain his membership status in Chhatra Shibir. However, he also did not deny having been associated with the organisation.
According to university sources, Salahuddin Ammar was one of the coordinators at Rajshahi University during the July mass uprising of 2024. After the political change, it became publicly known that several of the coordinators, including Mehedi Sajib and Fazle Rabbi Md Fahim Reza, were associated with the politics of Islami Chhatra Shibir. Against this backdrop, questions were raised at various times about Ammar’s political ideology.
There was also discussion on campus that Shibir had announced a “dummy” panel under Ammar’s leadership in the RUCSU election held on 16 October last year, the first such election in 35 years.
Former coordinator Mehedi Sajib contested the vice-president post on the panel, while Akil Bin Taleb contested for assistant general secretary.
Mehedi is currently serving as publicity and media secretary of the university Shibir unit. There were also rumours that Akil Bin Taleb withdrew from the panel and, after reaching an “understanding” with Shibir, was elected as a student representative to the university Senate. As before, Ammar and Shibir leaders and activists denied the claim.
Ammar used to tell journalists that he came from a Chhatra Shibir background and had grown up in an environment influenced by Chhatra Shibir. That, he said, was why many people considered him a Islami Chhatra Shibir member. Islami Chhatra Shibir leaders and activists, meanwhile, maintained that Ammar had no association with the organisation.
According to the university unit Islami Chhatra Shibir letters, the Rajshahi University unit decided to cancel Salahuddin Ammar’s sathi status on 11 September 2025.
Earlier, a letter signed by then-unit president and RUCSU vice-president Mostakur Rahman Zahid on 4 February 2025 mentioned various allegations against him.
The letter said allegations of moral misconduct had emerged against Ammar, including claims that he had taken money for the posts in the Rajshahi city and district committees of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. It said the organisation became aware of the allegations through reports published by various individuals and platforms, as well as leading media outlets in the country.
The letter further said the allegations were discussed in detail at the unit’s monthly secretariat meeting on 3 February 2025. Taking the allegations of moral misconduct into consideration, the meeting decided to suspend Ammar’s sathi status for violating organisational discipline. It also said further organisational action would be taken if the allegations were proven.
Then, in another letter signed by then-unit president Mostakur Rahman Zahid on 11 September 2025, the organisation said Ammar’s sathi status had been cancelled because he had engaged in activities contrary to organisational discipline for a long period and had failed to reform despite repeated efforts to correct his conduct.
Most recently, a letter signed by current university Islami Chhatra Shibir unit president Mujahid Faisal on 31 July this year referred to the earlier decisions. It said that at the unit’s monthly secretariat meeting in February 2025, a decision had been taken to suspend Ammar’s sathi status over allegations of moral misconduct, negligence in performing basic religious duties, inappropriate socialising with women, illicit financial transactions and misappropriation of assets, and involvement in activities contrary to the organisation’s aims and objectives.
The letter also expressed concern that Ammar’s activities and, in some cases, allegations of involvement in criminal offences could create an unstable situation on campus. Islami Chhatra Shibir members were instructed not to make any positive or negative comments or reactions regarding his online or offline activities. They were also asked to maintain no contact with him, except for elected Rucsu office-bearers, who were permitted to maintain official relations with him.
Confirming Ammar’s association with Islami Chhatra Shibir, Mehedi Hasan, general secretary of the university Islami Chhatra Shibir unit, told Prothom Alo, “According to our constitution, information about someone’s expulsion is not supposed to be disclosed publicly. Because everyone can make mistakes. He [Ammar] became a Sathi of Shibir while studying at Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrasa. He was transferred here under the organisation’s coding system. In this way, he was associated with Chhatra Shibir on campus.”
Mehedi Hasan further said, “From that position, Chhatra Shibir provided him with various forms of protocol and shelter during the July movement. Later, in February 2025, allegations of financial irregularities and activities contrary to Islam emerged against him. As he failed to provide satisfactory answers regarding the allegations, he was expelled from the position in September.”
He said Ammar had no association with the organisation after being expelled from Islami Chhatra Shibir.
A Islami Chhatra Shibir leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo, “All three letters are genuine. He was involved in Shibir politics. After his expulsion, all communication with him was severed.”
Regarding the allegations, Salahuddin Ammar wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday night that he had been accused of inappropriate socialising with women, extortion and giving organisational posts in exchange for money, but no evidence had been provided for any of these allegations.
Ammar wrote that during his campus life, he had never behaved with any female student in a manner beyond a brother-sister relationship. Regarding the extortion allegation, he said that, at the advice of the then vice-chancellor, he had approached various banks and companies seeking financial assistance to organise a concert related to the July movement.
The proposal letter was later circulated as a letter seeking donations, he said. Regarding the allegation of giving posts in exchange for money, he wrote that he had no involvement, either before or after, with a committee formed by local students in Rajshahi during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.
Salahuddin Ammar did not mention anything in his post about having held the sathi position in Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Regarding his association with Islami Chhatra Shibir, however, he wrote that although he was described as a Chhatra Shibir member, he had spoken about the matter publicly and that, because of his involvement in right-wing cultural activities, he could be categorised according to Chhatra Shibir’s standards. He also acted in Islami Chhatra Shibir’s official song.
Ammar said, “To this day, I have never been involved in any of the allegations brought against me. If you accuse me of something I did not do, how can I prove that I did not do it?” At the same time, he requested people not to insult him by calling him “Shibir.”