The July ‘Cultural Narrative’ That Made Chhatra League a Target for Mob Violence and Killing — And What Came After

Editorial

July 28, 2026. Dhaka

The unity and courage that the student community of Bangladesh demonstrated through the mass movement of July 2024 are now being tortured by a section of the same student community with the tag of “Chhatra League”. This retaliatory attack on the July protesters due to conflict of interest has become a dangerous trend in the country’s universities. The name of the organization that was once seen as a symbol of students’ rights has now been turned into a license for indiscriminate beatings and harassment.

The latest example is Rajshahi University.

Pratim Das, who went viral after posting a picture of him burning a Chhatra League bike during the July movement, was recently brutally beaten by Raksu General Secretary Salauddin Ammar and his associates (allegedly supported by Shibir). In this incident, an attempt has been made to justify the attack by using the tag “Chhatra League”.

Such incidents are not limited to Rajshahi alone. Students participating in the July Movement in public and private universities across the country are being attacked by a special group of July. The label “Chhatra League” has become a convenient weapon to defeat their opponents. Political experts say that in this way, the Islamic Chhatra Shibir is establishing its sole dominance in the universities.

Surprisingly, the organizations called “ordinary students,” which once spoke up for student rights, are playing a silent role in these incidents.

It will kill you, because it has grown up in your own creation.

This is how the killings and mob lynchings were facilitated by the tag of “Chhatra League”, and it started very brutally. And the victims of this brutality were hundreds of Chhatra League leaders and activists.

After August 2024, a narrative was established against the Chhatra League in a coordinated manner, stating that since the Chhatra League opposed the July student movement, the Chhatra League is the enemy of the July movement and eliminating, mob-beating, and killing these Chhatra League members is “legitimate” in the interest of the July spirit.

On July 15, 2024, the Chhatra League attacked anti-quota student protesters who took to the streets of Dhaka University with sticks and chanted the slogan “Who are you, who am I, Razakar Razakar?” The revenge for that incident began with the beating of Chhatra League members in various halls, the beating of Chhatra League members from a six-story building in Muradpur, Chittagong, and the demand to cancel the studentship of thousands of meritorious higher education students who joined the Chhatra League in all universities of the country.

In the wake of this, Dr. Yunus’ interim government gave the final license to make students who had formed Chhatra League across the country “killable” and “mob-worthy” by banning Chhatra League.

As a result of this combined campaign, example, and license to kill, thousands of Chhatra League activists across the country were stripped of their student status and deprived of their right to education. Many were mob lynched, beaten, jailed, and murdered. Notable former Chhatra League activists who were killed include:

• Former Chhatra League leader of Rajshahi University Abdullah Al Masud
• Shamim Ahmed alias Shamim Mollah, former Chhatra League leader of Jahangirnagar University
• Tofazzal Hossain was beaten to death at Dhaka University

 

These incidents have become so normal that the winners of the July Movement celebrated, farmed, and beat up and exposed Chhatra League wherever they went. Today, it has become very normal to attack anyone using the same “Chhatra League” tag. People like Salahuddin and I are exploiting this opportunity.

The position of ordinary students!

A few days ago, when a July 1 fighter from Jahangirnagar University went to his area, he was harassed by members of the local Awami League. He was forced to chant the slogan “Joy Bangla”. The student spontaneously chanted “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu” and said “Julai CDI” on his own. This incident created intense anger among students across the country. Everyone protested against the forced chanting and harassment.

Who are these ordinary students who protest on special occasions and spend the rest of their time engaged in farming and life hacks?
These are the segment of the student body that helped establish a dangerous narrative as a tool.

What is that tool?

If there is no harmony between opinion and consciousness, it is Chhatra League. And Chhatra League will be considered mob-worthy or killable.

The terrible culture that the students who protested in July created is being applied to them today. Salahuddin Ammar, the general secretary of Rajshahi University’s Raksu and a militant, has just exercised the cultural narrative created by ordinary students.

This cultural narrative created by the July protesting students has been further applied. A few days ago, during Sehri in the month of Ramadan, the student movement at Dhaka University beat up a student with a “Chhatra League” tag and left him in front of Shahbagh police station. Imi ended up in jail with the “Chhatra League” tag.

Whenever a student attacks or opposes the interests of a particular group or becomes a thorn in the path, then the cultural narrative created by July will be practiced, and then the tag will be given, saying, “They are ‘Chhatra League’.” This is July’s biggest achievement.

Whatever demands the student protesters in July made, whatever student rights they protested to establish, those are all in the past.

July gave the victors the right to establish the spirit of July by mobbing and killing.
July gave a special class the right to label them “Chhatra League” and make them killable. This is the only achievement of July for some.