Bangladesh: Incidents and Statements involving
Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) : 2008

Daily Star has reported that the dormitories of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute in the national capital’s Tejgaon area have turned into a safe haven for fugitive criminals and militants. Criminals and militants are taking refuge within the three hostels of the Institute. Unidentified students and law enforcement agencies have confirmed that the criminals are being provided shelter by the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. Several teachers with Jamaat background and with alleged links with the Harkat-ul Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) are also involved in the incident. Prof Shamshul Alam, principal of the Institute, admitted that some teachers of the institute are assisting the militants to hide in the dormitories, but said that the authorities are unable to take actions against those teachers since the issue is "out of their jurisdiction to deal with". Read less...

Five teachers and five office clerks of the Rangpur Carmichael College have been transferred to different colleges after intelligence agencies and the education department found them responsible for instigating activists of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) to go on rampage on the college campus on February 6. Read less...

On March 26, the Court of Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge in Chittagong sentenced four Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) cadres to death and three other Shibir cadres to life imprisonment for killing eight people, including six Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists, in Bahodderhat on July 12, 2000. Daily Star reports that each of the convicted cadres was also fined Taka 50,000 each. The three with life terms will have to stay in prison a year more if they fail to pay the fine. Thirteen ICS cadres charge sheeted in the case were acquitted by the court. The ICS cadres had opened fire on a bus carrying BCL cadres, student wing of the Awami League, at Bahodderhat in Chittagong killing six BCL cadres, the driver and an auto-rickshaw driver. Read less...

An activist of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) assaulted an assistant proctor of the Chittagong University (CU) on May 2, reports Daily Star. Earlier, on April 31, a group of ICS cadres had manhandled Proctor Prof Dr Jasim Uddin at the CU Railway Station premises. Read less...

A court in Chittagong on May 13 sentenced Islami Chhatra Shibir cadre Mohammad Nasir alias Shibir Nasir to 17 years rigorous imprisonment in an arms case filed in 1992, Daily Star reported. The Chittagong Second Additional Metro Sessions Judge Ekramul Haque Chowdhury gave the same punishment to Mohammed Oli Ullah, a close accomplice of Nasir who is also an accused in the case. This is the first case out of 35 criminal cases against Nasir in which he was convicted. Nasir has been in jail since March 1998. Read less...

Earlier on November 6 night, ICS cadres under the banner of 'Sacheton Chhatra Samaj' went to rooms of boys' dormitories and forced them to join a 'protest rally' against the cultural activists who they said staged a play against the Prophet. Read less...

Police on November 6-night arrested Zafar Babu, a cadre of Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) from Milik Bagha village in Bagha sub-district of Rajshahi, reports Daily Star. The extremist was trying to abduct a girl before her marriage when the local people caught him and handed him over to police. Zafar is a resident under Motihar police station in Rajshahi city. He is one of the accused in the murder of Rajshahi University teacher Prof Muhammad Yunus in 2005. He is also an accused in a number of cases relating to arms, explosives, murder, extortion and terrorism with different police stations in Rajshahi. Read less...

ICS activists of Rajshahi University (RU) on November 7 staged a demonstration on the campus and threatened to burn to death cultural activists of RU on the campus. After the Juma (Friday) prayers, ICS cadres organised a rally and paraded different streets on the campus. Read less...

The Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) on November 12 enforced a daylong strike on Rajshahi University (RU) campus, reports Daily Star. Earlier on November 11, ICS cadres under the banner of 'Sacheton Chhatra Samaj' of RU called for a general shutdown on the campus demanding punishment of cultural activists for staging a 'drama against' Prophet Mohammad. Hundreds of ICS cadres under the banner of 'Sacheton Chhatra Samaj' went to science, arts, commerce faculty buildings, central library, dean offices and administrative building and forcibly closed the main gates in presence of police on November 12 morning. They took position at different points including the administrative building and asked officers, employees and students to leave the campus. The university officials and employees could not enter the administrative building while classes and scheduled examinations could not be held. The ICS cadres moved around the campus on motorbikes, creating panic among the teachers and students. Read less...

In another incident, Mohammed Moniruzzaman Sajib, a leader of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, student wing of the Awami League, was injured in an attack by the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) cadres on December 16 at Peerpur village in the Pabna District. Read less...