On July 16, 2024, student activists involved with the anti-quota movement clashed with student activists from the government-aligned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and the Jubo league in Chattogram city. The clashes resulted in the deaths of at least one student.
Anti-quota student protests had planned a demonstration at a local railway station to condemn attacks on fellow student protesters for the afternoon of July 16. Prior to the planned protest, however, BCL and Jubo League activists established a position at the location. When the anti-quota student activists processed to the planned location, BCL and Jubo League activists attacked with sticks. Later some attackers also used firearms. Anti-quota student protesters responded by throwing bricks.
The clashes killed three people, including at least two who were brought to the hospital with bullet wounds. Among those killed were Wasim Akram, a student in Chittagong College’s sociology department and the joint convener of Chittagong College Chhatra Dal, a student organization affiliated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. One media outlet reported that a student from MES College, also in Chattogram, was killed as well. The director of Chittagong Medical College Hospital confirmed the deaths and reported that several other people arrived at the hospital with injuries.
The planned protest was part 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://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/7/17/bangladesh-shuts-schools-and-universities-after-deadly-protests
https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/local-news/qf4ee1hnln
https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/6-killed-dhaka-ctg-rangpur-quota-protesters-police-bcl-activists-clash-901141
https://www.observerbd.com/news.php?id=481559