In a dramatic and emotionally charged Facebook post, Abdul Quader, the Vice President candidate of the Anti-Discrimination Student Union panel backed by the Bangladesh Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad (Bagchhas), has said he no longer seeks victory in the upcoming Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) elections, but only survival.
“I don’t need to win in DUCSU. I just want to survive,” Quader wrote in a post around 3:00pm on Thursday, appealing to the public for what he described as “just this much kindness.”
His statement has ignited a political firestorm, drawing attention to what opposition student groups and rights activists are calling a climate of intimidation and targeted harassment in the lead-up to the long-delayed student union polls.
Quader, whose panel has positioned itself as a challenger to the dominant student organisations, claimed that the psychological toll of sustained attacks, both online and offline, has left him in a state of severe distress.
“It started when I mentioned that Razakar,” he wrote, referring to a controversial comment during a speech 10 days ago in which he allegedly named a historical collaborator with Pakistan during the 1971 Liberation War. “Since then, I can’t sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night; my body is shaking.”
He described relentless online abuse and alleged that the harassment has extended to his family. “Even my mother is being told to ‘go home!’” Quader said, without specifying who made the remarks. “How much more can you do to a human being? I don’t even know how much patience a person can have left.”
Quader also accused political rivals of deliberately distorting his speech by circulating selective clips. “If they had shown the full speech, people would have understood the context,” he said. “But they chose propaganda over truth.”
With five days remaining until the DUCSU election, Quader expressed deep anxiety about what lies ahead. “This is only the beginning. Just thinking about what might happen in the next few days traumatises me further,” he added.
His post has sparked widespread reactions across political and social media circles. Supporters from secular and anti-establishment student groups have rallied behind him, accusing some student organisations of orchestrating a smear campaign to crush dissent.
The Election Commission, overseeing the DUCSU polls after years of postponement, has yet to comment on Quader’s allegations.