Dhaka, Sep 10 The student wing of Bangladesh's radical Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) registered a landslide victory in the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) elections, the results of which were announced on Wednesday.
As many as 471 candidates contested for 28 posts with the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) panel of Abu Shadik Kayem, S M Farhad and Mohiuddin Khan elected as Vice President, General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary, respectively.
Immediately after their triumph in the elections, the local media reported that Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan has also congratulated ICS on winning the DUCSU elections, asserting that "new history" has been made in Bangladesh.
Last year's July-August protests that had shaped the student unity by using mobs in attacking shrines of Hindus, religious minorities, un-Islamic cultural institutions, destruction of artworks - something that is still continuing in Bangladesh - was noticeable in ICS achieving a successful outcome in the DUCSU election.
Considering the reaction from Pakistan, analysts reckon that the results also imply that Bangladesh politics continues to slide massively towards radical Islam that is prone to violence. JeI's consolidation through manipulation or engineering has started with the ICS winning the DUCSU elections.
It is also the first time in DUCSU's history that JeI's student wing openly contested with a full panel, thanks mainly to the polls being held under the interim administration of Muhammad Yunus and banning of the dominant Awami League's Bangladesh Chhatra League.
The ICS resurfaced publicly in September last year, a month after the shocking exit of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that also ended the 15 year-long domination of Bangladesh Chhatra League in Dhaka University.
In the one year since its re-emergence, the radical student outfit managed to draw substantial support from madrasas (religious Islamic schools) students.
Meanwhile, Abidul and Umama have already rejected the DUCSU election results, stating that they were rigged and were a "farce".
They alleged that the Dhaka University administration has brought shame upon the nation as the entire administration is run by Shibir loyalists.
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