Democratic Students Federation (DSF) is a Left-wing student organization in Pakistan. It emerged as a splinter group of the National Students Federation(NSF) in the early 1970s when a pro-China faction of NSF parted from its pro-Moscow parent party, the Communist Party of Pakistan.
DSF was reorganized in 1982, and quickly spread through all of Pakistan. It played an active role in uniting students, labour unions, nationalists and left wing parties to struggle against Ziaul Haq's military and fundamentalist rule. During the struggle it lost its leader Nazir Abbasi who was tortured and killed in military custody. Many of its leaders were thrown in prisons and punished. Surprisingly this leftist and secular organization became more popular in Pakhtunkhwa province (which seems under the clutches of extremism these days).However, its influence started to decline after the collapse of soviet Union in the early 1990s.
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