A year after it was banned, Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, won a major university poll in Bangladesh on Saturday (September 13, 2025).
With this victory at the Jahangirnagar University located near the capital Dhaka, Shibir now has two of the most important university campuses under its control in Bangladesh. On September 10, Shibir swept the Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU) election.
The victory of the Islami Chhatra Shibir in the DUCSU polls was welcomed by Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. The victory of the Shibir-backed panel in Jahangirnagar University was welcomed by Shafikur Rahman, Ameer of Jamaat in Bangladesh, on Saturday (September 13, 2025), who said, “Today a big responsibility has been placed on the students. Hope they will give the highest importance to preserving our trust.” Shibir was banned by the Sheikh Hasina-led government in the first week of August 2024 before her government fell in the student-people uprising on August 5, 2024. The ban was lifted by the interim government.
The student union polls in Bangladesh have attracted attention as they are coming just five months ahead of the February 2026 election in Bangladesh amidst growing pressure from the Islamists to exclude political parties like deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League. The elections in Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University are expected to be followed by polls in the universities in Rajshahi, Chittagong and other universities where Shibir’s victory is expected to create positive sentiment in favour of the Shibir candidates.
