LEADERS and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, appear hell-bent on not only continuing their atrocities but also extending the arc of their criminal acts. It appears all the more so when some Chhatra League activists, along with some local stalkers, intruded a women interns’ dormitory at Rajshahi Medical College at around 11:30pm on Wednesday. According to a report published in New Age on Friday, the miscreants that include two Chhatra League leaders of the college unit, who are also interns studying in Bachelor of Dental Surgery at the medical college, intruded the hostel and only left the place when the staffs and guards rushed to the spot after the inmates raised a hue and cry. The intruders had meanwhile tried to break open a room, vandalised a door and two windows apart from threatening to abuse some women interns unless they left the hostel.
Ever since the incumbent Awami League-Jatiya Party government took power in January 2009, the Chhatra League men have hogged the headlines for various wrong reasons. Its leaders and activists engaged in clashes that on a number of occasions turned fatal with their political rivals and among themselves in different educational institutions across the country mainly over the control of campus. Such clashes have, on the one hand, vitiated academic atmosphere on campuses and, on the other, resulted in the closure of those institutions on several occasions causing serious adverse impact on students concerned who, though, were in no way connected to those clashes. The Chhatra League men have also perpetrated various crimes such as tender manipulation, extortion, abduction, rent seeking and even sexual assault on women and girls in and outside campuses during the period. Meanwhile, the top brass of the government and also the ruling party, including the prime minister, have repeatedly warned the Chhatra League troublemakers of tough actions in the past four years or so, regrettably, just to forget later. On the other hand, law enforcing agencies, including police, have also appeared reluctant to deal with the criminal acts committed by them in this period. It is little wonder, therefore, that the Chhatra League hooligans have continued with their misdeeds.
The heinous incident in question took place at a time when violence against women, including sexual harassment, has assumed an alarming proportion around the country apparently for, among others, lack of stringent measures against the perpetrators. Besides, the alleged involvement of some ruling party men in such horrendous incidents in recent times has worsened the situation further. One can recall that there was a furore over an incident during the immediate past BNP-led government in which a ruling party man wearing a burqa intruded Eden Women’s College in the capital Dhaka, reportedly to seek votes.
Be that as it may, the incumbents need to realise that such criminalities by BCL activists undermine their authority and credibility. Thus, they need to take effective and deterrent actions in this regard.