On May 23, 2022, members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) — the youth wing of the country’s ruling party, the Awami League — reportedly assaulted members of a rival student group, the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), on the University of Rajshahi campus, injuring at least two of them.

Sources indicate that at least 10 BCL members approached JCD members assembled near a memorial on campus and began attacking them. JCD members fled the scene, with at least two heading to a hospital for treatment.

According to Prothom Alo, the leader of the campus BCL chapter commented on the attack, stating “We heard that Chhatra Dal [JCD] is planning to make the campus unstable and we got them out of the campus.”

Scholars at Risk is concerned by members of a student group violently attacking another on campus. Students have a responsibility to refrain from violence and respect freedom of expression and freedom of association. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, such attacks undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/politics/two-injured-as-chhatra-league-attacks-chhatra-dal-at-ru
https://www.thedailystar.net/youth/education/student-politics-more/news/3-injured-separate-clashes-between-bcl-jcd-men-sylhet-ru-campus-3030181
https://www.newagebd.net/article/171389/two-jcd-leaders-injured-in-bcl-attack-on-ru-campus