Shibir comes out on Jahangirnagar campus

Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, came out in the open on Jahangirnagar University campus.

A press release demanding a healthy environment for student politics was signed by its publicity secretary Abdullah Al Mamun Saki, a philosophy student. Released last night, the statement was put up on a Facebook page named "Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir, Jahangirnagar University".

This development in Jahangirnagar University follows similar declaration by Shibir in other major public universities including Dhaka University and Rajshahi University.

Chhatra Shibir has long existed as a clandestine student body since other student groups did not allow them to conduct political activities on a number of university campuses.

Shibir's committee of its Dhaka University unit was the first to be revealed after its general secretary, also a noted leader of the student movement, revealed membership in this Islamist party.

The Shibir statement also revealed the party's leadership in Jahangirnagar. The university unit is headed by Harunur Rashid Rafi as president (archaeology) and Muhibur Rahman Muhib as general secretary (Bengali).

Although Shibir's activities remained banned on Jahangirnagar University campus since August 15, 1989, the party's press release claims that a senate meeting on that day had never really taken the decision. Yesterday's press release states that although banning Shibir was tabled as a proposal, it was not adopted as a decision.

Previously the Islami Chhatra Sangha, Shibir has had to bear the stigma of its predecessor's alleged crimes against humanity during Bangladesh's 1971 liberation war. Sangha leaders of 1971, Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, have been found guilty of war crimes and executed by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh.