Bangladesh Chhatra League

Bangladesh Chhatra League, simply Chhatra League (Bengali pronunciation: [ˈʧʰɑt̪ːroliɡ]), is the student wing of the political party, Bangladesh Awami League, founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 4 January 1948. The organisation is banned and listed as a terrorist organisation in Bangladesh.

BCL has been repeatedly accused of committing mass violence including torture, extortion, forced prostitution, killings to instill fear. At least 33 people were killed and 1,500 were seriously injured from attacks by BSL between 2009 and 2014. The number of fatalities rose to 129 between 2014 and 2018 while 31 people were killed in 2018 alone.

A BSL leader was arrested for links with the banned terrorist group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh in a militant hunt after the July 2016 Dhaka attack. The leaders and activists of BSL were also found involved in the 2021 Bangladesh communal violence.

Bangladesh Chhatra League is accused of running a 'forced prostitution' racket by forcing the girls of Eden Mohila College unit by blackmailing them.

Following the attacks on student protesters in 2018, a petition was started by general people of Bangladesh to "Enlist Bangladesh Chhatra League (BSL/BCL) as a Terrorist Organization" at Change.org. In 2019, Online news portal Dhaka Tribune labelled the organization as "the brand of shame". On 26 May 2022, after a series of attack on dissident student groups, eight left-wing student organizations termed Bangladesh Chhatra League a 'terrorist organization'. The organisation was banned by the interim government of Bangladesh on 23 October 2024 under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, following their involvement in the July massacre.