Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti's committees dissolved, activities suspended

Within a year of its establishment, all committees of "Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti" (Democratic Student Force) have been dissolved and all of its activities have been suspended.

The announcement was made by the student organisation in a post on its Facebook page around 3am today.

The leaders of Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti were at the forefront of the student movement that led to the ouster of the Awami League government on 5 August. Two leaders of the organisation — Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuiyan — are serving as advisers to the interim government.

The announcement came as a section of students of Dhaka University has raised the demand to ban party-based student politics on campus. Initially, the issue was raised on social media, but later they also held several human chain programmes and protests on campus.

After the Dhaka University authorities announced the resumption of classes on 22 September, a section of students said they will not go back to the classes until student politics is banned.

On condition of anonymity, a coordinator of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement and a leader of Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti told a Bangla daily that they basically wanted to avoid the ongoing controversy regarding student politics. 

During the recent movement, there was a demand to ban party-based student politics on campus, so the leaders of Chhatra Shakti wanted to make their stance clear, the coordinator said.

On 4 October 2023, the Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti's 21-member central convening committee was formed with Akhtar Hossain, former social services secretary of the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (Ducsu), as the convener and Nahid Islam as the member secretary. A 33-member Dhaka University branch committee was also announced on the same day.