Ruling party student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League, is supposedly clamping down on the ongoing quota reform movement with assaults and threats.
The leaders of Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Council, a platform of the movement, said that Chhatra League activists were interrupting all their events and threatening them with violence.
Female students brought out a procession on the Dhaka University campus yesterday, protesting ongoing attacks on quota reform activists and the arrest of the movement's leaders. Their demonstration was foiled due to a counter protest launched by Chhatra League.
“Female students launched a procession, but Chhatra League did not allow them to stand anywhere,” said Hasan Al Mamun, convener of the quota reform movement.
“They have created an atmosphere of fear. Students are being threatened not to go out of their dormitories,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Students wishing to remain anonymous said that Chhatra League had locked down almost all the male dormitories. Students from female dorms, Ruqayyah Hall and Poet Sufia Kamal Hall, brought out a procession yesterday in response.
They went around the campus before rallying in front of the National Library at Shahbagh around noon.
The protesting students demanded punishment for all attackers and the immediate release of their movement leaders, including a call for student security on campus.
At that time, the Chhatra League men shouted slogans against the movement, saying— “We do not support the quota reform movement’, ‘we will study and take exams.”
Later, the female students held a press conference in front of DU Ruqayyah Hall, the protesters said.
Seeking anonymity, a student from Haji Muhammad Mohsin Hall said they had been told by Chhatra League leaders to stay inside the dorm and not join the quota reform movement.
“The situation is not good at all. Students are being monitored by the Chhatra League. Many have been threatened with violence for joining the movement,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Quota reform activists from Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, and Sylhet’s Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, reported similar situations on their campuses.
In the last few days, Chhatra League members have beat up quota reform activists in public universities across the country, injuring at least 30.
They even helped police arrest the movement’s Joint Convener, Md Rashed Khan, along with three other leaders – Faruk Hasan, Toriqul Islam, and Jasim Uddin.