The Bangladesh Chhatra League, formerly East Pakistan Student League, often simply called the Chhatra League, is a students' political organisation in Bangladesh, founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 4 January 1948. BSL is the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League. It's played important role in the Bangladesh War of Independence but after 1972 it split into two factions on the basis of alliance to Shekh Mujibur Rahman. But later it has been repeatedly accused of using torture, extortion, violence, forced prostitution, and killings to instill fear. At least 33 people were killed and 1,500 got seriously injured from attacks by BSL between 2009 and 2014. Number of fatalities rose to 129 between 2014 and 2018 while 31 people were killed in 2018 alone.
Following the attacks on student protesters in 2018, a petition was started by general people of Bangladesh to "Enlist Bangladesh Chhatra League (BSL) as a Terrorist Organization" at Change.org. In 2019, prominent English-language daily of Bangladesh, Dhaka Tribune labelled the organization as "the brand of shame". On May 26, 2022 after a series of attack on dissident student groups eight left-wing student organizations termed Bangladesh Chhatra League a 'terrorist organization'.
Rape and violence against women
Since 1990s numerous rape and sexual violence allegations have surfaced in the media involving Chhatra League leaders and activists. Chhatra League leaders and activists often use rape as a tool to suppress the women and create an environment of fear. There are well documented incidents that Chhatra League leaders have even celebrated their century of raping women.
Culture of rape in Jahangirnagar University
The general secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra League Jahangirnagar University unit, Jasimuddin Manik and his followers celebrated the rape of 100th girls including at least 20 students of the university in 1998. This led to a series of protests which resulted in the expulsion of Manik and his followers from the university on 2 August 1999 after the 1999 JU Anti-Rape Movement.
Women harassment on Pohela Boishakh 2015
On Bangla New Year celebration of Dhaka University campus, a group of students sexually assaulted women on the venue and tried to strip them off their clothing. Law enforcement was present in the vicinity, yet the miscreants were not stopped, according to witness accounts:"When we sought help from a few policemen standing 20 yards from the spot, they said that the area was beyond their jurisdiction,” said Amit who also came under attack by the youths and had his fingers fractured.
Amit along with five of his fellow activists had tried to save a group of women aged between 25-30 years from the rowdy youths.
"The youths were divided into three groups and each group had 10-12 of them. People everywhere around were blowing vuvuzela so loudly that nobody could hear the victims' cry for help," he said, adding thousands of people were milling around the area, making it difficult for them to prevent the attackers.Despite having CCTV footage which clearly identified the culprits, the police made no arrests by 2019:The probe over the incident was forced to end as the DB police failed to concretely identify any of the culprits beyond simple facial and visual CCTV recording during their eight-month-long investigation. DB Sub inspector Dipok Kumar Das submitted a final report to court on 13 December 2015, saying he had failed to identify any of the suspects.As the ruling party Awami League has control over law enforcement and Chhatra League is the student wing of Awami League, it is widely speculated that the police assisted Chhatra League to carry out these attacks by taking no action to stop them and by making no arrests. Notably, Chhatra League also prevented its female members from protesting this incident.
MC College rape allegations
On 28 September, The Daily Star, reported that BCL had participated in factional clashes at MC College, which resulted in 4 people dying in various incidents since 2018. The report came after BCL activists allegedly raped a woman in front of "BCL Men's Room" at MC College. The victim's husband has filed a rape against several BCL activists and the victim has named several in her court statement. A total of 7 suspects have been arrested as of 29 September 2020. DNA reports have confirmed involvement of the suspects.