Bangladesh mulls ban on student political activity

DHAKA, Apr 30 (Reuters) Bangladesh's army-backed interim government is seeking to ban university students and teachers from joining political parties as part of its campaign to crack down on corruption.

Talking to reporters late last evening, the government's law and information adviser Mainul Husein said the authorities wanted to free campus politics from the control of political parties.

''We have proposed to the Election Commission to have a law for banning party-affiliated students, teachers and trade organisations,'' the government's law and information adviser Mainul Husein said.

''All the political parties should help the government in implementing this decisions.'' But Mainul's remarks drew immediate protest from former student leaders-turned-politicians.

''Student politics cannot be banned or throttled by making laws.

This will backfire,'' said Hasanul Hauque Inu, chief of Jatyio Samajtantrik Dal, a small, left-leaning party.

Tofayel Ahmed, a former president of Dhaka University Central Students Union and a minister in the government of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, said students should be free to pursue politics alongside their studies.

''If they want to become politicians after graduating, they must be familiar with political activities before leaving campuses,'' Tofayel said. ''Their choices cannot be curtailed by law.'' Students have played a leading role in national political movements in the south Asian country, including the 1952 campaign to make Bengali a state language in what was then East Pakistan, and the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

But over the past decades student organisations have mainly served as cadres of the main political parties, with campuses mostly controlled by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of immediate past prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia and the Awami League led by her rival Sheikh Hasina.

Students were given money and weapons by their political mentors, police and university officials say, resulting in regular violent clashes between opposing factions.

A long-standing feud between Khaleda and Hasina spilled over into protests that caused the government to cancel elections planned for January and declare a state of emergency, banning all political activities.

Security forces have since detained more than 160 political figures on various corruption charges, including Khaleda's son Tareque Rahman, several former ministers and trade union leaders.

(Additional reporting by Serajul Islam Quadir) REUTERS AGL ND1142