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The interim government has officially banned Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League.
The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a a gazette notification on Wednesday, declaring the Chhatra League a terrorist organisation.
The Anti-discrimination Student Movement and the National Citizens' Committee, in a press conference held this evening, had given the government until Thursday to ban the Chhatra League. However, before the ultimatum expired, the government announced the ban on the organisation.
The notification states that the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing affiliated with the Awami League, has been involved in activities that undermine public safety, including murder, torture, systematic oppression in student dormitories, seat trading, tender manipulation, rape, and sexual harassment during various periods following Bangladesh's independence, particularly during the last 15 years of authoritarian rule. Substantial evidence of these activities has been published in major media outlets, and some of the organisation's members have been convicted in court for their involvement in terrorist activities.
During the anti-discrimination student movement that began on July 15, Chhatra League members launched frenzied and indiscriminate armed attacks on protesting students and the general public, resulting in the killing of hundreds of innocent students and civilians and endangering the lives of countless others.
The government has sufficient evidence to prove that even after the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, the Bangladesh Chhatra League has continued to engage in conspiratorial, destructive, and provocative activities, as well as various acts of terrorism.
In light of this, the government has declared the Bangladesh Chhatra League banned under Section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, and has listed the organisation as a prohibited entity in Schedule 2 of that law.
This order shall come into effect immediately, according to the notification.