No effort to rein in the BCL 

The alleged assault on a female student in the Islamic University in Kushtia has reached the courtroom as a lawyer filed a writ petition seeking a directive over the allegation. 

In response, the High Court ordered a committee to be formed to look into the incident on Thursday. The development came two days after the allegation came to the fore through media reports on Tuesday.  

Just a few days after her admission into the university, the victim underwent brutal torture by a female leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s (BCL) Islamic University unit and her cohorts on Sunday night. 

The BCL leaders tortured her for around four and a half hours, abused her verbally, and recorded a video after stripping her as she did not comply to their words. 

They also threatened to kill her if she disclosed her ordeal to her fellow students. Later, the girl was traumatised and went home immediately.  

This is not the lone incident of assault by the ruling party’s student front. Earlier, the report of mental torture on two students by the BCL’s Eden College unit president in Dhaka created a huge public outcry last year.

There are dozens of similar incidents that took place in educational institutions across the country. 

It seems that the BCL has gone on a rampage and their back-to-back criminal activities in the educational institutions endorse this conviction. They have been running the misdeeds unchecked for years and the general students have continued to suffer the most from it. 

The situation worsened further as the student front’s female leaders have now been accused of torturing a general student after stripping her. 

Some analysts said the BCL created a terrifying image among the general students in public universities and colleges. But there is no noticeable effort to rein in the student organisation.  

Its monopolistic control over all universities and colleges made it tough for political opponents to co-exist on the campuses. As there is no political contest, the BCL now does not move with the core programmes of a student organisation, like practising its ideologies and raising the voice in favour of general students. 

Rather, individual interests, group interests, and financial interests get priority in the organisation. This is why factional clashes triggered by the contradictory interests in the party now make headlines frequently. 

Also, there are allegations of extortion, collecting ransom through abduction, and tender business in the development projects against the BCL leaders. 

A fresh addition to the list of misdeeds is the assault on general students in ‘torture cells.’ The female BCL leaders are now not lagging behind in torturing the general students.  Also, there are allegations of assaulting teachers on university campuses. 

However, BCL central president Saddam Hossain disagreed with the conviction and denied taking responsibility for the misdeeds. He told Prothom Alo that it is not the organisation's fault if someone carries out any negative activities due to the gross degradation of social values.

Prothom Alo correspondents monitored the student organisation's activities across the country for 40 days, from 1 January to 9 February. Some 25 offences have been reported to be carried out by the BCL men in 13 educational institutions. Torturing general students, assaulting teachers, and forceful control over residential seats ruled the complaints. 

Also, there are incidents of BCL infight over extortion and establishing supremacy in different educational institutions, including Dhaka and Chattogram universities. 

The recent incident of assault on the Islamic University student took place in a Gana Room (a room roughly used by an excessive number of students) of a women's dormitory.

Earlier, there were reports of assaults in the male student dormitories of public universities. Now, it gained a new dimension as female BCL leaders also joined the trend of assault and are reportedly establishing their control over the halls. 

In January, BCL evicted five students from their allotted seats in two residential halls of Rajshahi University and occupied them. The evicted students are still going through the trauma. 

The BCL men beat up a general student in the university’s Shah Makhdul Hall on 19 January as he declined to pay extortion money. Later, he left the dormitory out of fear. 

Protesting the BCL misdeeds, a professor of the RU’s economics department, Farid Uddin Khan, held a hunger strike in front of the academic building. 

A leader of Chattogram city unit BCL physically harassed a female teacher of Omargani MES College in Chattogram on 7 February while the teacher was conducting a class around 12:00 pm. He was also a former leader of MES college unit BCL.

A week before the incident, on 30 January, a teacher of Comilla University was harassed at the hands of BCL leaders and activists at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman hall. On that day, the BCL leaders were evicting a master’s student from the hall. Upon hearing the news, Amit Datta along with the proctorial team rushed to the scene and tried to pacify the BCL men, who, at that time, roughed him.

Three teachers of Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh were subjected to harassment by the university unit BCL leaders in the last three months. The victims are the leaders of the AL-backed teachers’ panel of the university.    

The incidents of teachers’ harassment at different educational institutions by the BCL men are on the rise. Even the teachers are being injured while pacifying the BCL groups involved in clashes and arguments.

A teacher of Chittagong University (CU) was injured on 6 January while trying to stop two BCL subgroups from being locked in an altercation. 

On 7 February, a clash ensued between two BCL groups at Fazlul Haque Muslim Hall of Dhaka University (DU) to take control of seat allocation.

Recently, the incidents of clashes between BCL groups over extortion, tender business, establishing supremacy and taking control of hall seats took place at different universities -- Chittagong University, Sylhet Agricultural University, Ananda Mohan College in Mymensingh, Jatir Pita Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Government College in Shariatpur, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Jahangirnagar University.

Failing to carry out extortion, a local BCL leader of Goalanda upazila in Rajbari assaulted an official of a tender firm, which was constructing a school building there. The leader was arrested later.  

On 6 October in 2019, a group of BCL men tortured Abrar Fahad to death at Sher-e-Bangla dormitory of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). In the case, the lower court of the capital sentenced 20 BCL men to death and five to life imprisonment.     

In the last year, different BCL groups of CU locked in clashes for 15 times while the students brought out a massive protest on 17 July of the year against the university unit BCL in the incident of sexual harassment of a female student.

Two leaders, who were the presidents of BCL in the 80s, told Prothom Alo that during their tenures, the BCL men were not as involved in criminal activities as they are now. The leaders and activists of the organisation have now deviated from the ideology.        

Sultan Mohammad Mansur Ahmed, a former BCL president, was elected parliamentarian from Gano Forum in the last parliamentary election.

He, also a former vice-president (VP) of DUCSU, told Prothom Alo that BCL led all the democratic movements of the country, including the liberation war. Now, it is the responsibility of the incumbent leaders to uphold the traditions of the organisation.       

BCL expelled many of its leaders and activists in the last couple of years for allegedly being involved in different criminal activities. Legal actions were taken in some cases. But the criminal activities remain unabated.

When asked about these issues, BCL president Saddam Hossain said BCL is working to ensure a congenial atmosphere in the campus. It is necessary to protest against the ragging still prevalent at many universities. He said BCL leaders are doing politics in the country to bring changes, out of responsibility towards the people.   

Deviation of social values leads to these misdeeds. These are not the matters of the organisation. However, it is necessary to take proper action against the responsible persons as per law, he added.

Renowned educationist Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque, a former professor of Dhaka University's (DU) Bangla Department, told Prothom Alo that the practice of democracy is absent everywhere -- from student politics to national politics. Due to this reason, anomalies are taking place. Without the practice of democracy, the activities of the students’ bodies will not change.  

[The correspondents from Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Jahangirnagar University along with that of Sylhet, Kushtia, Cumilla, Barishal, Shariatpur, Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Lakshmipur and Goalanda (Rajbari) contributed to the report.]