The Interim Government on Wednesday (Oct 23) banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student front of Bangladesh Awami League under Anti-Terrorism Act-2009. The Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a gazette notification in this regard on the day. “The order will come into force immediately,” according to the notification.
According to the gazette notification, the government made the decision as per section 18 (1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act-2009 and listed the BCL as a banned entity under the second schedule of the act.
The Chhatra League leaders and activists have been involved in a number of incidents obstructing public security since Bangladesh’s independence, it reads.
It further said that during the 15 years of Bangladesh Awami League’s dictatorship, they (BCL leaders and activists) were involved in murder, torture, oppression in common rooms, seat trading in various dorms, tendering, rape, and sexual harassment, which were published in different mass media and their terrorist activities were proven in criminal courts.
The gazette added that the leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League killed hundreds of innocent students and people and made their lives endangered by launching frenzied and reckless armed attacks on them during the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement from Jul 15, 2024.
The government has enough evidence and information that the BCL has been involved in different conspiratorial, subversive and terrorist activities against the state since the fall of Awami League government on Aug 5, the notification added.
