Govt bans Chhatra League

The government has banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of Awami League.

The home ministry made the announcement of banning BCL as a terrorist organisation in a notification published on Wednesday.

The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement and the Jatiya Nagorik Committee at a press conference on Wednesday evening announced that they had set a deadline until tomorrow, Thursday, to ban the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League. Before the deadline, the government banned the organisation.

The home ministry stated in a notification that during various periods following the independence of Bangladesh, particularly in the past 15 years of authoritarian rule, the Bangladesh Chhatra League has been involved in activities that threaten public safety, including murder, torture, campus-related oppression, seat trading in student dormitories, tender manipulation, rape, and sexual harassment. Documentary evidence of these activities has been published in all major media outlets, and the involvement of the organisation's leaders and activists in some terrorist incidents has been proven in court.

The notification further stated that since the start of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement on 15 July, leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League have violently and recklessly attacked protesting students and the general public, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent students and individuals, and endangering the lives of many others.

Additionally, the government has sufficient evidence that even after the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August, the Bangladesh Chhatra League has been involved in conspiratorial, destructive, and provocative activities against the state, as well as various terrorist actions.

The notification declared that the government has, therefore, banned the Bangladesh Chhatra League under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 and listed the student organization "Bangladesh Chhatra League" as a prohibited entity in Schedule 2 of this law. This decision will take immediate effect.