Bangladesh: Students From Sheikh Hasina's Party In Hiding Fearing Mob Violence, Arrest (X image @AlfonsoLabrague)
As Sheikh Hasina’s iron clad grip on Bangladesh was collapsed overnight, starting from students protests, everything changed for the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) party.
The students are now in hiding. Earlier this week, Bangladesh’s interim government, led by its only Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, declared the BCL a “terrorist organisation” and banned it. The Ministry of Home Affairs said the BCL had a history of serious misconduct over the past 15 years, including violence, harassment and exploitation of public resources.
The student group, which has been powerbrokers of Awami League in campuses, and the party’s muscle on streets – which has been visible during the popular student protests that ousted Hasina – are reduced to face eviction, retribution and even imprisonment for their role in trying to suppress the revolt against Hasina and for the rights violations they allegedly committed while she was in power.
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Fahmi, who was a member of BCL, said he did not directly participate in the government’s deadly crackdown against people during the anti-Hasina demonstrations. “My sisters were part of the protests,” he said. “I also believed in the cause but was trapped by party obligations”, he told Al Jazeera.
Fahmi said the anti-Hasina protesters set fire to his family’s home and cold storage business in Noakhali district, 173km (107 miles) from Dhaka. “They threatened to make my younger brother disappear if he didn’t disclose my whereabouts”.
He admitted that being a BCL leader would improve his prospects of landing a government job – an appealing incentive in a shrinking job market – especially since his responsibilities towards his mother, two unmarried sisters, and younger brother grew after his father’s death two years ago.
“The party used us as its political pawns but offered no protection when we needed it most. The regime fell suddenly; saving myself from the angry mob was the hardest thing I ever faced that evening. Yet, neither top party leaders nor BCL’s student leaders have checked on me”.
The student has his final year exams coming up. But he cannot attend classes or complete his degree. “I wanted to join the civil service and serve the nation,” he said. “But stepping on campus could lead to my arrest on dubious charges – or worse, I could be beaten to death”.
Fahmi is not alone. According to Awami League, at least 50,000 of its student affiliates across the nation are now in limbo, struggling to continue their tertiary education.
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After forming the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, issued a gazette on October 23, officially banning the BCL under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009. The law was formed by Hasina’s government soon after it came to power in 2009.
This decision came after nationwide protests led by Students Against Discrimination (SAD), the student group that mobilised the students against the Hasina government in July, and other groups demanding BCL’s ban.
Bangladesh plunged into chaos in July, after students demanded the abolition of a controversial reservation system in government jobs that they said favoured supporters of the governing party. Though Bangladesh’s top court scrapped the quota, the protests soon morphed into a wider call for the removal of Hasina’s “autocratic” regime, marked by allegations of widespread rights violations.
The incidents followed were one of the bloodiest to happen in the country’s history. Security forces beat the protesters, and fired tear gas and live ammunition on peaceful demonstrators, killing more than 1,000 people in three weeks and arresting thousands of others.
On August 5, Hasina flee the country in a military helicopter and sought refuge in New Delhi, as defiant Bangladeshis stormed prominent government buildings, including Hasina’s residence and the parliament.
Things did not end there. The former perpetrators of state atrocities became the new targets as hundreds of AL politicians and members, including students, were attacked or killed. Many went into hiding or were detained while attempting to flee.
(With inputs from Al Jazeera)
