SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities. Starting July 1, 2026, SAR no longer publishes reports for the incidents that it records. SAR continues to monitor and record incidents that will be used in the annual Free to Think report. This page provides a record of incidents reported up to that date. Learn more about the Academic Freedom Monitoring Project.

Date of Incident: July 16, 2024

Attack Types: Killings, Violence, Disappearances

Institution(s):Multiple Institutions

Region & Country:Southern Asia | Bangladesh

New or Ongoing:New Incident

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 Chankharpool area of Dhaka. Four people, including students from Shaikh Burhanuddin Post Graduate College, were shot and injured in the clash.

Quota reform student protesters had planned a protest for the afternoon of July 16 and gathered at the scheduled time. Earlier in the day, however, members of the BCL, Jubo League, and Awami League – the political party led by then-president Sheikh Hasina – established themselves in the area. Clashes broke out between the two groups, with both throwing bricks and chasing each other. BCL activists were also reported to have set off crude bombs. Four people, including students, were taken to the hospital with reported bullet wounds.

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/eqfcqk1ke1
https://www.daily-sun.com/post/758110
https://www.jagonews24.com/en/politics/news/75602