Interim government bans Bangladesh Chhatra League

The interim government imposed a ban on the organisational activities of Bangladesh Chhatra League on Wednesday, nearly two and a half months after the fall of its affiliated party, the Awami League-led government.

A notification regarding this was issued by the Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs later in the evening. 

At the same time, nobel laureate Dr Yunus-led government listed this student organization as a banned entity. The ban is being enforced with immediate effect under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009; which was enacted during the Awami League‍‍`s rule.

The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement and the National Citizens‍‍` Committee had given the government ultimatum until Thursday to prohibit the Chhatra League, during a press conference held this evening. 

Before that deadline, the government declared the organization banned.

In the notification from the Ministry of Home Affairs, it was stated that, throughout various periods following Bangladesh‍‍`s independence, particularly during the past 15 years of authoritarian rule, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the brotherly organization of the Bangladesh Awami League, was involved in various activities that disrupt public safety, including murder, torture, campus-based 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 in the country, and the criminal activities of the organization‍‍`s leaders and members have been proven in court in some terrorist incidents.

The notification further states that since July 15, during the ongoing Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League have violently attacked protesting students and ordinary citizens with reckless armed assaults, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of innocent students and individuals, endangering countless others‍‍` lives. Furthermore, the government possesses substantial evidence that even after the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, the Bangladesh Chhatra League has been involved in conspiratorial, destructive, and provocative activities against the state, as well as various acts of terrorism.

The notification concludes by stating that, therefore, under the authority of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009, the government has declared the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the brotherly organization of the Bangladesh Awami League, to be banned and has listed the student organization as a prohibited entity in Schedule 2 of this law. This decision will take immediate effect, it added.