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Leaders of different political parties on Thursday expressed mixed reaction over imposing ban on the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, by the interim government.

Many of them said that the government decision would not bring a good result in the future as the organisation might gain public sympathy due to the ban.

Some of them said that the BCL now did not represent the glory it had achieved in the past and that it had become an organisation of individuals involved in criminal activities and that the individuals had killed students and people in the past 15 years of AL regime as well as during the July-August student-mass uprising.

A few of them said that the government could bring the individuals in the organisation to book for their criminal activities and that banning BCL in an executive order was not logical.

The Awami League, however, condemned the government’s decision while AL’s arch-rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said that only banning the organisation was not enough and that the perpetrators of criminal activities in the organisation should be arrested and tried immediately.

The interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, amid the demand raised by the Student Movement Against Discrimination that led the July-August student-mass uprising ensuring the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime, on Wednesday banned the BCL under the Anti-Terrorism Act for allegations of its involvement in breaching public security in various ways in the past 15 years.

The government notification to the effect stated that the Bangladesh Chhatra League was involved in various activities against public security, including murder, torture, common room-based oppression, seat trading at student halls, tender manipulations, rape and sexual harassment at various times after the independence of Bangladesh, especially during the past 15 years of dictatorial regime.

‘Banning a political organisation would bring no good result in the coming days,’ Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.

‘Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders and activists were involved in occupancy in all university and college campuses. They were involved in extortion and killing students and people during the recent July-August mass uprising. We have to identify the perpetrators in the organisation,’ he said and added that the BCL did not allow any other student organisations to hold programmes on campuses.

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal – JSD president and freedom fighter ASM Abdur Rob said that the BCL could not be considered to be a student organisation anymore.

‘They are nothing but the previous government’s repressive element as they remained involved in most of the criminal activities, including rapes and murders in the past 15 years,’ he said.

He said that the organisation now did not represent its past glory that it had in 1962, 1969, 1970, and 1971.

AL presidium member Jahangir Kabir Nanak in a statement on Thursday condemned the decision of banning the BCL, emphasising that very few countries had a historic and principled student organisation like the BCL.

He highlighted the BCL’s role in the liberation struggle and Bangladesh’s independence and said that the BCL was one of the key elements used by the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in creating Bangladesh.

Addressing a discussion in the capital on Thursday, Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Selima Rahman said that merely banning the BCL was not sufficient.

‘Is it enough to simply ban the Chhatra League? They possess various sharp weapons, guns, pistols and other illegal arms that can be used to attack people to create chaos. So, they must be brought to justice with an iron hand,’ the United News of Bangladesh quoted the BNP leader as saying.

Mujibul Haque Chunnu, the secretary general of AL’s close ally Jatiya Party, said that the party would comment on the issue after holding a meeting with the party chairman on Saturday.

Revolutionary Workers Party general secretary Saiful Huq said that the ban would have been logical if the government went through a legal process – through an investigation of whether the BCL as an organisation was involved in extremist activities or individuals in the organisation were involved in criminal acts.

‘If it was proved in the legal process that Chhatra League was involved in extremist activities, it would be fine to ban it as an organisation. Otherwise, we have to bring the perpetrators in the organization to book,’ Saiful added. 

Socialist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Bazlur Rashid Firoz said that BCL had been working as a force of skilled fighters in the past 15 years to support the Awami League’s fascist regime. ‘They killed students during the student-led mass uprising.’

‘Our main demand is bringing attackers, murderers and torturers in Chhatra League under trial and ensuring punishment for them…We think that banning is not a solution without bringing the individuals of the organisation under trial,’ he said.

Welcoming the government initiative, Gono Odhikar Parishad faction president Nurul Haque Nur told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that the ban should not be for an indefinite period.

‘But, Chhatra League must be kept banned for a specific time as the organisation had turned into ‘monster’ during the AL fascist rule,’ he said.

The interim government banned the BCL on Wednesday, two and a half months after assuming power on August 8, three days after the fall of AL regime amid a student-mass uprising on August 5.  

The BCL was founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on January 4, 1948 as the East Pakistan Chhatra League. Later, after the War of Independence in 1971, the East Pakistan Chhatra League was replaced by the Bangladesh Chhatra League.

The then East Pakistan Chhatra League played an important role in the 1954 United Front elections. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the youngest minister in the United Front government of 1954. The leaders and activists of the East Pakistan Chhatra League played a leading role in the education movement of 1962. Chhatra League leaders and activists waged student movement against the then Pakistan government.

The then East Pakistan Chhatra League played a historic role in the historic mass uprising in 1969.

In 1969, the students of Bengal organised a nationwide mass uprising, in which BCL leaders played a key role.

The role of the Chhatra League in the historic elections of 1970 was significant. Several thousands of Chhatra League leaders and activists embraced martyrdom in the War of Independence.

After the independence, the student organisation faced divisions at times and the faction backed by the Awami League was accused of various criminal and violent activists.

In the past 15 years, the BCL reportedly became an organisation of fear for common students and people as well due to the involvement of its leaders and activists in criminal activities.