Dhaka: Bangladesh’s interim government has officially outlawed the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party, designating it a “terrorist organization”. This decisive move comes in response to mounting pressure from the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, which has outlined five key demands, including the removal of President Mohammed Shahabuddin, the abolishment of the current constitution, and the dissolution of the BCL.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, in a notification issued late Wednesday, stated that the ban under the Anti-Terrorism Act is effective immediately. The ministry cited the BCL’s long-standing history of misconduct, including incidents of violence, harassment, and the misuse of public resources over the last 15 years, as key reasons for the ban.
Tensions have been running high across Bangladesh, especially after Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5 amid violent protests. Following her departure, an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus assumed power. The protests, which started as a student-led demonstration against public sector job quotas in July, have since escalated into widespread unrest—the deadliest the country has seen since its 1971 independence—resulting in over 700 deaths and numerous injuries.
During the protests, BCL leaders and activists were accused of attacking students and civilians, using arms to quell dissent, which led to hundreds of fatalities and endangered the lives of many more, according to a government statement.
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While there has been no official comment from the Awami League, several senior party leaders have either been arrested for their alleged roles in the unrest or have gone into hiding. The BCL, founded in 1948, has been historically intertwined with the Awami League and played a significant role within the party’s structure.
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Under Hasina’s government, the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s main Islamic party, had previously been banned under the same anti-terrorism law due to its involvement in deadly violence during student-led protests and its alleged terrorist activities during the 1971 independence war. However, following the fall of Hasina’s government, the interim administration has lifted the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami.
