A list naming 115 members of the Dhaka University (DU) unit of Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, complete with individual code IDs and passwords, has gone viral on social media, deepening an already fraught climate of suspicion among student political activists on the DU campus.
The document, which claims to cover the DU Shibir unit's membership between 2009-2017, came on recently on Facebook by Md Abu Saied Konok, vice-president of the central committee of the now-banned Chhatra League.
Each entry in the list carries a unique identifier and password, suggesting a structured, documented membership system that operates largely out of public view. Names on the list have drawn particular attention. Sharfuddin (Muhammad Sharfuddin) is identified as the unit's president during that period, while Ali Ahsan Zonaed, former convener of United People's Bangladesh (UP Bangladesh) and now a joint-convener of Jatiya Nagorik Party (NCP), is listed as secretary. Sigbatullah, currently serving as secretary of Shibir's central committee, also appears.
For many on campus, the list is less about individual names and more about what it implies: that a significant number of Shibir-affiliated students operate without any public trace, placed inside student clubs, journalists' associations, and class representative roles, invisible to peers who cannot tell who among them holds a coded membership.
The charge cuts to the heart of a growing identity crisis on DU campus. When political affiliation can be documented, encrypted, and concealed simultaneously, the question 'who is Shibir?' becomes genuinely unanswerable for students, and that uncertainty, critics argue, is precisely the point. Mohiuddin Khan, president of the DU Chattra Shibir, stopped short of confirming or denying the list.
He rejected the broader allegation that Shibir workers conceal their political identity. "If our activists hid their affiliations, how did our rallies succeed? How did we win the DUCSU election?" he said. But the defence, for critics, only sharpened the question, if the visible membership alone is enough to win landslide elections and fill protest columns, what exactly are the undisclosed members doing?
Asked whether Shibir plans to form hall-level committees and make full membership public, Mohiuddin was brief: "We have no such plans at the moment." For students caught in the middle, the viral list has not provided answers so much as confirmed a suspicion that has long circulated in campus corridors that in any given club meeting, journalists' discussions, or CR election, the count of Shibir members in the room may be higher, and less visible, than anyone publicly acknowledges.
On April 23 (Thursday), leaders and activists of Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) attacked members of the Dhaka University Journalists' Association (DUJA) inside Shahbagh Police Station, branding them as 'Shibir'. They also chanted the slogan, "Shibir and journalism cannot go together."
By the time journalists arrived at the station, JCD leaders and activists, led by DU JCD president Ganesh Chandra Roy Sahos had already besieged the premises.
Abdullah Al Mahmud, a student of the 2019-20 session and a DUCSU member candidate from a Shibir-backed panel, had gone to the station to file a General Diary (GD) with a view to seeking protection. Allegations had been raised against him for allegedly posting vulgar images and comments targeting Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his daughter Zaima Rahman.
Meanwhile, a faction of DU JCD leaders and activists, led by general secretary Nahiduzzaman Shipon, went to Salimullah Muslim Hall to submit a memorandum to provost Dr. Abdullah Al-Mamun, demanding exemplary action against the alleged Shibir-linked student.
