Bangladesh: Brutal crackdown on quota reform protesters by security forces and ruling party youth wing

Bangladesh’s civic space is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor, its worse rating. It was downgraded in December 2023 as a result of a massive government crackdown on opposition politicians and independent critics in the run-up to national elections. Over the year, the authorities targeted human rights defenders, protesters and other critics, using intimidation, violence, arrest and torture. Authorities also targeted journalists exposing state abuses and shut down critical media outlets. A new Cyber Security Act, rather than freeing online expression, retained most of the repressive language of the previous draconian Digital Security Act used to criminalise thousands of online critics.

In recent weeks, there has been a brutal crackdown on the quota reform protests, with attacks against them by the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party. Police also used excessive force and firearms, with more than a hundred deaths and many more injured. Student leaders and protesters have been arrested and ill-treated while a communications blockade has been imposed. Journalists have also been targeted.

Peaceful Assembly

Mass protests erupted in universities across Bangladesh in early July 2024, in response to the reinstatement by the courts on 5th June 2024 of a 30 percent quota in government jobs reserved for the children of those who fought to win Bangladeshi independence. The university students called for an end to the "discriminatory" quotas, totalling hundreds of thousands of government jobs and demanded a merit-based system. Prime Minister Hasina’s previous government had scrapped the quota system in 2018. Tens of thousands of students had set up roadblocks across key highways and disrupted traffic.

Following the mass protests, on 21st July 2024, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court scaled back the controversial job quota system. The Supreme Court ordered that the quota for veterans’ descendants be cut to five percent, with 93 percent of jobs to be allocated on merit. The remaining two percent will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people.

Prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has sought to place the blame the unrest on the opposition Bangladesh National party (BNP), which has faced a crackdown under her rule.

Attacks by the Bangladesh Chhatra League on students

In response to the protests, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling Awami League, was deployed. In the past, they have been used to target activists and protestors critical of the government.

Eyewitnesses that Amnesty International spoke with said that the protests were entirely peaceful before individuals from the BCL started attacking them on 15th July 2024. They claimed to have identified BCL members coming out of multiple residential halls in Dhaka University, particularly the Surja Sen and Bijoy Ekattor halls, armed with rods, sticks and clubs, with a few even brandishing revolvers.

According to The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Odhikar, the BCL also attacked injured students who were receiving treatment in the emergency department of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Many female students were assaulted during the attack. Authorities did not take any measures to protect the students, and law enforcement personnel stood by while some of these attacks took place.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called the protestors ‘Razakars,’ referring to Pakistani collaborators in the 1971 genocide. According to student leaders, Hasina’s comments encouraged BCL members to attack protestors.

Excessive and lethal use of force and firearms

At the same time, the police also violently repressed protestors using unnecessary and disproportionate force. There were reports of the use of firearms, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and shotgun pellets to disperse protesters.

According to media reports at least 150 people have been killed since 15th July, including a journalist, while many more were seriously injured. Activists fear the number is much higher.

Abu Sayed, a 25-year-old student, was killed in the north-western city of Rangpur. In two videos verified by Amnesty International, at least two police officers discharged 12-gauge shotguns directly towards him from across the street. Sayed clutches his chest on impact as officers fire at least twice more.

In another video from 24th July, members of the Bangladesh police were seen shooting at an injured person from point-blank range in south of Dhaka. The injured individual was being carried away by another protestor, but the police shot both.

The government also deployed paramilitary units including the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guards-Bangladesh (BGB) to quell the protests in major cities around the country. Law enforcement agencies and security forces have been seen driving armored personnel carriers (APCs).

On 19th July 2024, the authorities imposed a nationwide curfew with a shoot-on-sight order and also deployed the military. Schools and universities across Bangladesh were also shut until further notice.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said on 19th July 2024 that he was “deeply concerned by this week’s violence in Bangladesh, resulting in reports of dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries. There must be impartial, prompt and exhaustive investigations into these attacks, and those responsible held to account.”

There were also attacks and vandalism of different government and private buildings and houses.

On 24 July 2024, the Bangladeshi government said it had formed a judicial committee headed by a Supreme Court judge to investigate violence.

Arrest of student leaders, opposition and ill-treatment

According to AFP, the authorities have arrested around 2,500 protest participants and organisers as of 24th July 2024, with more than 1,200 people detained in Dhaka in its rural and industrial areas. Those arrest were mostly members and the top leadership of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) along with several student organisers. Among those arrested including Akhtar Hossain, the Convenor of Gonotantrik Chhatra Shakti (Democratic Student Power) in Dhaka.

There have also been reports of torture and ill-treatment in detention. Nahid Islam, a coordinator of the quota reform movement, alleged that he had been subjected to physical and mental torture. He told the BBC he had been picked up by people who said they were detectives, handcuffed and transferred to a private car.

He was taken to a room in a house, interrogated and subsequently subjected to torture. At one point he fainted. He said he regained consciousness on the street in an area of Dhaka in the early hours of 20th July and had blood clots on both shoulders and his left leg.

Expression

Communications blockade around protests

According to reports, access to mobile internet was temporarily restricted across the country on 18 July 2024, and access to social media platforms was blocked in certain areas. This las limited access to information, and ability to share reports of human rights abuses.

On 19th July 2024, the internet monitor Netblocks said Bangladesh was experiencing a "near-total" internet shutdown. The new measure follows earlier efforts to throttle social media and restrict mobile data services, it added.

Members of the #KeepItOn coalition - a global network of over 300 civil society organisations from 105 countries worldwide working to end internet shutdowns — appealed to the Minister of Home Affairs, and State Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology to publicly commit to ensure that the people in Bangladesh have unfettered access to the internet, social media platforms and other communication channels, to respect people’s rights enshrined in Bangladesh’s Constitution and the country’s international commitments.

On 24th July 2024, authorities restored only broadband internet service partially in Dhaka and Chattogram after six days,

Attacks on journalists

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported that one journalist had been killed and roughly 30 injured as of 19th July 2024, while covering the student protests in Dhaka.

On 18th July 2024, Dhaka Times journalist Hasan Mehedi, 35, was killed in circumstances yet to be identified while reporting on the events. Around 30 other journalists were assaulted and wounded. Some were beaten or shot at by the police, and some were attacked by counter-protestors supporting the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling Awami League party. Others were caught up in the clashes.

According to RSF, on 16th July 2024, numerous TV reporters, videographers and photojournalists were attacked and injured in a clash between protesters and riot police backed by the BCL. Dainik Janakantha 's press photographer, Sumanta Chakrabarty, suffered a broken leg on the Dhaka University campus.

Others injured on the campus include Bonik Barta correspondent Mehedi Mamun, Bangladesh Today correspondent Jubayer Ahmed, Dainik Bangla correspondent Abdur Rahman Sarzil and Dainik Janakantha correspondent Wajtul Islam, Ekushey TV reporter Jubaer Ahmed, Dainik Jugantor reporter Musfiqur Rezwan, Bangla Tribune reporter Arman Bhuiyan and Dainik Janakantha correspondent Motahar Hossain.

On 17th July 2024, Vaskar Bhadury, a reporter for the privately-owned Jamuna TV, was attacked during clashes between protesting students and supporters of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) on the Dhaka University campus.

On 18th July 2024, Nadia Sharmeen, reporter for the privately-owned TV station Ekattor TV, was wounded by bullets fired by riot police on the outskirts of Dhaka; journalist Muktadir Rashid Romeo was wounded by riot police bullets in Dhaka.

On the same day, Dainik Manabzamin 's photojournalist Jiban Ahmed was injured when protesters set fire to dozens of vehicles and to the reception building of the state-owned station Bangladesh Television (BTV) in Dhaka, while New Nation reporter Kamruzzaman Bablu, correspondent for the private TV channel MyTV, Rakib Ahmed, and a journalist from Dainik Janabani were reportedly hurt by tear gas.

On 24th July 2024, the Dhaka Union of Journalists said that three journalists had been killed and about 150 other journalist were injured. A former videographer of the online news portal, The Report, Tahir Zaman Priyo, 24, was shot dead on 19th July 2024 while on 20th July 2024, Md Torab Hossain, photojournalist of local daily Jalalabad, died at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital while undergoing treatment at the hospital after sustaining bullet injury during a protest in Sylhet city.