The 'Super 10' of the National Citizen Party
The top 10 leadership positions—dubbed the "Super Ten"—of the youth-led National Citizen Party have been finalised.
The official announcement of the party's formation will be made this afternoon, from a rally on Manik Mia Avenue, in front of the National Parliament Building in Dhaka.
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Several founding members have referred to the party's top 10 positions as the "Super Ten."
Md Nahid Islam has been appointed as the convener of the new political party, while Akhter Hossen will fill the post of member secretary serving as Nahid's number two.
Nahid Islam resigned from the advisory council of the interim government on Tuesday, to take on his new role.
Akhter Hossen has been serving as member secretary of the Jatiya Nagorik Committee, which is the civic platform of the July uprising leaders.
The senior joint convener position will be filled by Samanta Shermeen and Ariful Islam Adib, while the senior joint member secretary position will go to Tasnim Zara and Nahida Sarwar (Niva).
Additionally, Nasiruddin Patwari has been appointed as the chief coordinator, while Abdul Hannan Masud will serve as the joint coordinator.
Hasnat Abdullah has been designated as the chief organiser (Southern Region), while Sarjis Alam has been assigned the role of chief organiser (Northern Region).
Md Nahid Islam – Convener
Akhter Hossen – Member secretary
Nasiruddin Patwary – Chief Coordinator
Samanta Shermeen – Senior Joint Convener
Ariful Islam Adib – Senior Joint Convener
Abdul Hannan Masud – Senior Joint Chief Coordinator
Dr Tasnim Zara – Senior Joint Member Secretary
Nahida Sarwar Niva – Senior Joint Member Secretary
Sarjis Alam – Chief Organiser (Northern Region)
Hasnat Abdullah – Chief Organiser (Southern Region)
Nahid Islam, convener of the new party, was a key organiser of the student movement that toppled Sheikh Hasina.
A sociology graduate from Dhaka University, Nahid was one of the student representatives within the interim government. He resigned from the advisory council last Tuesday.
He became member secretary of Ganotantrik Chhatra Shakti on October 3, 2023, which was a breakaway faction of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad led by Nurul Haque Nur.
Chhatra Shakti was dissolved on September 14, a week after Nagorik Committee was formed.
At the height of the protests in July, he was picked up by law enforcers and tortured until he lost consciousness. He was returned within a couple of days only to be picked up again when the protests gained even more momentum, this time along with five other fellow protesters, and detained at the detective bureau headquarters.
In 2018, Nahid participated in the quota-reform protests that shook the nation. At the time, he received threats from the university administration and teachers.
In 2019, he ran for the post of cultural secretary at Dhaka University Central Students' Union from Nurul-Rashed-Faruk panel under the banner of Bangladesh Sadharon Chhatra Odhikar Songrokkhon Parishad.
He lost the election and later separated himself from the platform.
He was admitted to DU in 2016.
Member secretary of the National Citizen Party, Akhter Hossen is the former social service secretary of the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (Ducsu).
He is also one of the key organizers of the Students Against Discrimination, the movement that toppled the Sheikha Hasina regime.
An alumnus of Dhaka University's law department, Akhter's came under the spotlight when he observed a hunger strike all by himself protesting against question leak of a Dhaka University admission test.
He was admitted to DU in 2015.
Later, in 2019, he contested the Ducsu polls from the panel of Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad, a platform that had led the 2018 quota reform movement. He contested for the social service secretary post and won.
Akhter later joined Chhatra Odhikar Parishad, a student body of Nurul Haq Nur's Gono Odhikar Parishad and became president of the student organisation's DU unit.
In 2023, Akhter floated the Ganotantrik Chhatra Shakti, breaking away from Chhatra Odhikar Parisahd on October 3, 2023 in which he was the convener.
Akhter Hossen was arrested at the base of the Raju Memorial Sculpture around 3:00 PM during on 17 July 2024 just when the quota protest was heating up.
A former student of Dhaka University's marketing department, Nasiruddin Patwary gained prominence in 2020 after staging a 40-day hunger strike at the base of the Raju Memorial Sculpture to protest border killings.
In 2022, he joined the Amar Bangladesh (AB) Party. Before that, he was active in the left-wing student organisation Chhatra Federation and served as the organising secretary of its Dhaka University unit.
Samanta Shermeen was involved in left-leaning student politics and was a former member of the politico-civic group Rashtrachinta.
She played a key role in the "Nipironbirodhi Shikkharthibrindo" (Anti-Oppression Students' Alliance), which campaigned against Chhatra League's alleged oppression on university campuses.
Ariful Islam Adib, an alumnus of Jahangirnagar University, served as the general secretary of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad, the student wing of Nurul Haque Nur's Gono Odhikar Parishad.
He coordinated an anti-fascist coalition of 16 student organisations formed in 2023. His political activism began in 2018 as the joint convener of Jahangirnagar University's unit of the Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad. He was also a member of the liaison committee of the Students Against Discrimination movement.
An undergraduate student of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Dhaka University's Institute of Modern Languages, Masud was one of the coordinators of the Students Against Discrimination. He enrolled in DU in the 2019-20 academic year.
Dr Tasnim Zara completed her MBBS from Dhaka Medical College before earning a degree from the University of Oxford with top honours.
She was recognised as a "vaccine luminary" by the UK government for her contribution to vaccine awareness and played a key role in treating those injured during the student-public uprising.
A former student of Dhaka University's microbiology department, Nahida Sarwar Niva was at the forefront of the 2018 quota reform movement, the road safety protests, and the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (Ducsu) movement. She was actively involved in the Students Against Discrimination movement.
Sarjis Alam, an alumnus of Dhaka University's zoology and a resident of Amar Ekushey Hall, was elected a member of the hall union in the 2019 Ducsu polls from the Chhatra League panel.
He is widely known at Dhaka University for his involvement in debating and was a leading figure in the July movement from its inception.
Hasnat Abdullah, a former student of Dhaka University's English department and a resident of Bijoy Ekattor Hall, came into the spotlight after staging a hunger strike in front of the university's registrar building, protesting against bureaucratic inefficiencies in administrative services.
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