On July 16, 2024, student activists with the quota reform movement and students from the government-aligned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and the Jubo League clashed in the Science Lab Area of Dhaka. One student was killed in the clashes.
The clashes took place the day after BCL members attacked quota reform movement protesters on the campus of Dhaka University (see report). On July 16, quota reform demonstrators from multiple Dhaka-based universities and colleges marched to protest the previous day’s attacks. BCL and Jubo League activists attacked the group with iron pipes and sticks, prompting clashes. Over the next seven hours, the groups each established their own position in the Science Lab area of Dhaka and engaged in chases and counter-chases with sticks, brick chunks, and other similar weapons. At one point, shots were reported to have been fired from the position of the BCL and Jubo league activists.
The clashes injured over 100 students, including several who had bullet wounds. One student from Dhaka College was reported killed.
The violence occurred against the backdrop of the quota reform movement, a set of widespread student protests that began on the campus of the University of Dhaka, after a June 5, 2024 ruling by the High Court of Bangladesh reinstating a quota system – previously abolished in 2018 – which allocated government jobs to certain favored groups. Under the system, 30% of government positions went to people who had fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan and their family members, creating a shortage of sought-after positions for others. The protests ultimately led to the resignation of Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina and the establishment of a new interim government.
Scholars at Risk is concerned about violent attacks by students against other students in retaliation for their exercise of their rights to freedom of association and expression. Scholars at Risk calls on all parties to exercise restraint and to avoid violence. State authorities have the right and obligation to maintain order, which they must with due regard for the rights of protesters and others, including the rights to free expression, academic freedom, peaceful assembly, and due process.
Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/city/ppafjgpzme
https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/city/km32tdwti8
https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/city/km32tdwti8
https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/6-killed-violence-spreads-3658766
https://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/758122
https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/student-killed-dhaka-amid-quota-reform-protests-900831