Documentation for Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL)
Feb. 14, 1996
The Guardian (London)
Students have always played a central role in political life in Bangladesh. .."You've got to understand that in 1991, every party had arms - rifles, guns, revolvers, light machine-guns, grenades - everything," .. He is a full-time activist for the student wing of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party... Although both the BNP and the main opposition party, the Awami League, rely on so-called student leaders to enforce strikes or to get crowds out for demonstrations, the ruling party appears to have the upper hand...At Dhaka university.. there are several shoot-outs a week between the security forces and rival campus gangs... the official BNP student wing, Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, during his prison sojourn, local BNP leaders were waiting at the jail on the day of his release. They hung garlands around his neck, handed him 100,000 takas ( pounds 1,600) and put him to work...Leaders of its Awami League rival say this is because government agencies have given the BNP students access to a bigger arsenal - though they admit their own workers also indulge in violence..."Sometimes arms do come to us," said ..president of the Bangladesh Student League. "Officially they don't."
June 24, 1996
The Globe and Mail
Nearly 21 years after her parents, three brothers and a dozen other relatives were assassinated, Sheik Hasina Wazed was sworn in yesterday as only the third freely elected prime minister in Bangladesh's troubled history, bringing a remarkable full circle to the struggle launched by its first -- her father.
Sept. 27, 1996
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Most student parties in Bangladesh maintain cadres bearing illegal arms, posing a serious challenge to the efforts by the three-month old government to curb campus violence which had claimed over 80 lives in the past two years.
Nov. 10, 1996
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Three pro-government students have been gunned down on a university campus north of the capital, raising the death toll in such violence across Bangladesh to seven in the past week, police and witnesses said Sunday... said three students belonging to the Bangladesh Students League aligned with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, were killed in an overnight shootout on an agriculture university campus after they were ambushed by suspected student supporters of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
May 10, 1997
Xinhua News Agency
tension is prevailing on the campus of bangladesh's most famous dhaka university today while rival groups of students have declared to hold their rallies at the same venue this afternoon. a huge number of police have been deployed to prevent a fresh conflict between the bangladesh chhatra league (bcl), a ruling party-backed student organization, and the jatiyatabadi chhatra dal (jcd), a pro-opposition party student wing, said campus sources. on friday, the two rival groups of students clashed with exchanging of gunshots, that left at least nine persons injured.
April 24, 1998
Associated Press
The raid came hours after supporters of Khaleda Zia, leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and those of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina traded at least 100 shots in the campus, killing 24-year-old.. .a leader of the Bangladesh Student League, the student wing of Hasina's Awami League party...Such violence is common on the country's university campuses, which are sharply divided along political line
Nov. 1, 1998
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Two Islamic students killed in campus riots in Bangladesh...
gunbattle broke out overnight between activists of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, a right wing religious extremist group, and supporters of the Bangladesh Students League aligned with the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Dec. 21, 1998
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
...bloody clashes broke out on Sunday after armed men on motorbikes stormed the house of ..., a former law-maker from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The opposition claimed the attackers were from the student front of the ruling Awami League of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. BNP activists in retaliation ransacked the residential quarters of local leaders of the Awami League.
A pro-government student activist and an opposition youth leader were killed, police said
Dec. 20, 1999
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
student supporters of the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Islamic militant students became locked in a three-hour armed clash, witnesses said.
July 12, 2000
XINHUA
Five mid-ranking Bangladesh Chhatra League (Bangladesh Students' League) leaders .. were shot dead by gunmen Wednesday..Police said a group of gunmen of Islami Chhatra Shibir (Islami Students' Front) riding a black micro-bus sprayed bullets ..Sharply reacting to the killing, angry Bangladesh Chhatra League(BCL) workers ransacked Bakulia and Kalamia Bazar, strongholds of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS). Metropolitan Police Commissioner of Chittagong ...told the UNB that Wednesday's bloody incident might be a sequel to long- running conflict between the BCL and the ICS...
July 14, 2000
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Police in Bangladesh continued their crackdown on militants of the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami, by arresting on Friday 32 suspected members of the group in connection with the massacre this week of 10 people in ...Chittagong.
Nine of the 10 people who were killed in the attack on Wednesday were identified by the police as members of the Bangladesh Students League, which is aligned with the centre-left secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
A total of 47 people have been detained since the massacre. Police sources said all the detainees were suspected armed members of the Islamic Chhatra Shibir, the student front of the Jamaat-i-Islami.
The massacre came in the wake of a long-running feud between the two rival student groups over the control of Chittagong university,...
The police said the massacre was a sequel to a gunfight on a state-run college campus at the weekend.
June 29, 2001
XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
As the five-year term of the ruling Awami League ends on July 13, hundreds of leaders and activists of Awami League-backed Bangladesh Student League (BCL) have been issued firearm licenses and they are now in a race to purchase the arms...The Daily Star Friday quoted BCL insiders as saying that a large number of licenses have also been issued to the ruling party men at district and police station levels...Many of the BCL leaders and workers already having illegal arms are now desperately trying to obtain licenses showing "security reasons and business purposes," ...But the main purpose behind their race for getting licenses and purchasing firearms is to face their political opponents during the tenure of caretaker government, they said, adding that these arms may also be used to influence the next general election.
July 13, 2001
Xinhua
The resident students of different halls of Dhaka University have started leaving their dormitories apprehending serious violence on the university campus between the two major student bodies -- Awami League supported Bangladesh Student League (BCL) and BNP supported Nationalist Student Party (JCD), as soon as the Caretaker Government takes over.
JCD leaders and activists, who were ousted from dormitories of the university during the last five years by the BCL cadres, are making all out preparations to return to campus. On the other hand, BCL leaders and activists are determined to control campus at any cost.
Both the camps reportedly have procured huge arms
July 16, 2001
The Independent
AFTER FIVE years in power, longer than any other leader in Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left office yesterday and was replaced by a caretaker administration that will run the country until the next general election, due to be held in October.
Jan. 7, 2009
BBC Monitoring Middle East
The United Kingdom and Japan on Tuesday [6 January] congratulated Sheikh Hasina on her assuming office as Bangladesh's prime minister, with promises to continue their assistance for a better future of the country.
The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a message congratulated Sheikh Hasina on the Awami League's [AL] election victory and her swearing-in as prime minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, said a release of the British High Commission in Dhaka.
Oct. 11, 2009
BBC Monitoring South Asia;
Chhatra League activists pounced on News Today's Rajshahi University correspondent Akanda Mahammad Zahid and injured him on 15 January when he was gathering information of a violent incident in which BCL activists were involved.
They also assaulted three other journalists who tried to save Zahid.
Feb. 10, 2010
BBC Monitoring South Asia
A final-year student and activist of Bangladesh Chhatra League [BCL, student front of ruling Awami League party] was hacked to death by cadres of Islami Chhatra Shibir [Islamic Student Forum, Jamaat-e-Islami party's student body] at Rajshahi University [on north-western Rajshahi city] early yesterday.
Around 100 others were wounded in overnight clashes between BCL [Bangladesh Student League] and Shibir activists.
Feb. 12, 2010
BBC Monitoring South Asia
[Bangladesh] Chhatra League [BCL] activists [workers] on Thursday attacked some journalists in Rajshahi University in which at least nine were seriously injured.
April 27, 2011
BBC Monitoring South Asia
Armed with firearms, home-made bombs and sharp weapons, two factions of Bangladesh Chhatra [students] League swooped on another faction at Haji Muhammad Mohsin Hall in Dhaka University yesterday, leaving around 70 people injured.
April 24, 2012
BBC Monitoring South Asia
In Mohakhali, Bangladesh Chhatra League activists along with law enforcers chased and dispersed a procession brought out by the activists of Govt Titumir College unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal at Wireless Gate around 9:20am [local time, 0320gmt].
Jan. 4, 2013
Bangladesh Government News
On January 4 in 1948, BCL was floated as a student organisation at the instruction of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (later, Bangabandhu and father of the nation) a year before the formal emergence of Awami Muslim League, now Awami League.
March 26, 2013
BBC Monitoring South Asia
Activists of Awami League, Jubo League and Bangladesh Chhatra League swooped on the BNP men with firearms, machetes and other sharp weapons, added the witnesses.
The BNP activists then retaliated with brick chips.
March 8, 2014
BBC Monitoring South Asia
At least 15 people, including three policemen, were injured yesterday when activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jubo League attacked a police station in Noakhali hearing a rumour of a municipal mayor being detained
Nov. 24, 2014
New York Times
Earlier this month, two incidents encapsulated the new type of campus controversy. The first was the unprovoked assault of a noted photographer and his two nieces (both alumnae). The attack was allegedly carried out by members of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League party, whose activists have gained a growing reputation for thuggishness.”
Oct. 7, 2016
Wikipedia. “Bangladesh Chhatra League”.
retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bangladesh_Chhatra_League&oldid=743034455
On 2 February 2014, armed members of its unit in the University of Rajshahi are believed to have joined police in attacking students protesting fee hikes.
