Sheikh Hasina was the longest-serving prime minister in Bangladesh’s history. She was the prime minister from 1996 to 2001, and then from 2009 to 2024—a total of 20 years. This was a sharp contrast to her father Sheikh Mujib, who was assassinated in 1975 after four years in power, or General Ziaur Rahman who was assassinated in 1981 after six years in power. In a scene reminiscent of the end of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rule in Sri Lanka, jubilant crowds of thousands crashed the gates of Ganabhaban, the official residence of the prime minister, and jubilantly made off with everything they could find.

Tanzim Wahab, photographer and chief curator of the Bengal Foundation, told me, “When [the masses] storm into the palace and make off with pet swans, elliptical machines, and palatial red sofas, you can feel the level of subaltern class fury that built up against a rapacious regime.” There was widespread celebration across Bangladesh, along with bursts of attacks against buildings identified with the government—private TV channels, and palatial homes of government ministers were a favored target for arson. Several local-level leaders in Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League have already been killed (Mohsin Reza, a local president of the party, was beaten to death in Khulna).

The situation in Bangladesh remains fluid, but it is also settling quickly into a familiar formula of an “interim government” that will hold new elections. Political violence in Bangladesh is not unusual, having been present since the birth of the country in 1971. Indeed, one of the reasons why Sheikh Hasina reacted so strongly to any criticism or protest was her fear that such activity would repeat what she experienced in her youth. Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920-1975), the founder of Bangladesh, was assassinated in a coup d’état on August 15, 1975, along with most of his family. Sheikh Hasina and her sister survived because they were in Germany at that time—the two sisters fled Bangladesh together on the same helicopter this week. She has been the victim of multiple assassination attempts, including a grenade attack in 2004 that left her with a hearing problem. Fear of such an attempt on her life made Sheikh Hasina deeply concerned about any opposition to her, which is why up to 45 minutes before her departure she wanted the army to again act with force against the gathering crowds.

However, the army read the atmosphere. It was time for her to leave.

A contest has already begun over who will benefit from the removal of Sheikh Hasina. On the one side are the students, led by the Bangladesh Student Uprising Central Committee of about 158 people and six spokespersons. Lead spokesperson Nahid Islam made the students’ views clear: “Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted. We won’t betray the bloodshed by the martyrs for our cause. We will create a new democratic Bangladesh through our promise of security of life, social justice, and a new political landscape.” At the other end are the military and the opposition political forces (including the primary opposition party Bangladesh National Party, the Islamist party Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and the small left party Ganosamhati Andolan). While the Army’s first meetings were with these opposition parties, a public outcry over the erasure of the student movement forced the Army to meet with the Student Central Committee and listen to their primary demands.

There is a habit called polti khawa or “changing the team jersey midway through a football match” that prevails in Bangladesh, with the military being the referee in charge at all times. This slogan is being used in public discourse now to draw attention to any attempt by the military to impose a mere change of jersey when the students are demanding a wholesale change of the rules of the game. Aware of this, the military has accepted the student demand that the new government be led by economist Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s only Nobel Prize winner. Yunus, as the founder of the microcredit movement and promoter of “social business,” used to be seen as primarily a phenomenon in the neoliberal NGO world. However, the Hasina government’s relentless political vendetta against him over the last decade, and his decision to speak up for the student movement, have transformed him into an unlikely “guardian” figure for the protesters. The students see him as a figurehead although his neoliberal politics of austerity might be at odds with their key demand, which is for employment.

Students

Even prior to independence and despite the rural character of the region, the epicenter of Bangladeshi politics has been in urban areas, with a focus on Dhaka. Even as other forces entered the political arena, students remain key political actors in Bangladesh. One of the earliest protests in post-colonial Pakistan was the language movement (bhasha andolan) that emerged out of Dhaka University, where student leaders were killed during an agitation in 1952 (they are memorialized in the Shaheed Minar, or Martyrs’ Pillar, in Dhaka). Students became a key part of the freedom struggle for liberation from Pakistan in 1971, which is why the Pakistani army targeted the universities in Operation Searchlight which led to massacres of student activists. The political parties that emerged in Bangladesh after 1971 grew largely through their student wings—the Awami League’s Bangladesh Chhatra League, the Bangladesh National Party’s Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatradal, and the Jamaat-e-Islami’s Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir.

Over the past decade, students in Bangladesh have been infuriated by the growing lack of employment despite the bustling economy, and by what they perceived as a lack of care from the government. The latter was demonstrated to them by the callous comments made by Shajahan Khan, a minister in Sheikh Hasina’s government, who smirked as he dismissed news that a bus had killed two college students on Airport Road, Dhaka, in July 2019. That event led to a massive protest movement by students of all ages for road safety, to which the government responded with arrests (including incarceration for 107 days of the photojournalist Shahidul Alam).

Behind the road safety protests, which earned greater visibility for the issue, was another key theme. Five years previously, in 2013, students who were denied access to the Bangladesh Civil Service began a protest over restrictive quotas for government jobs. In February 2018, this issue returned through the work of students in the Bangladesh Sadharon Chhatra Odhikar Songrokkhon Parishad (Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Forum). When the road safety protests occurred, the students raised the quota issue (as well as the issue of inflation). By law, the government reserved seats in its employment for people in underdeveloped districts (10 percent), women (10 percent), minorities (5 percent), and the disabled (1 percent) as well as for descendants of freedom fighters (30 percent).

It is the latter quota that has been contested since 2013 and which returned as an emotive issue this year for the student protesters—especially after the prime minister’s incendiary comment at a press conference that those protesting the freedom fighter quotas were “rajakarer natni” (grandchildren of war traitors). British journalist David Bergman, who is married to prominent Bangladeshi activist lawyer Sara Hossain and was hounded into exile by the Hasina government, called this comment the “terrible error” that ended the government.

Military Islam

In February 2013, Abdul Quader Mollah of the Jamaat-e-Islami was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity during Bangladesh’s liberation war (he was known to have killed at least 344 civilians). When he left the court, he made a V sign, whose arrogance inflamed large sections of Bangladesh’s society. Many in Dhaka gathered at Shahbag, where they formed a Gonojagoron Moncho (Mass Awakening Platform). This protest movement pushed the Supreme Court to reassess the verdict, and Mollah was hanged on December 12. The Shahbag movement brought to the surface a long-term tension in Bangladesh regarding the role of religion in politics.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman initially claimed that Bangladesh would be a socialist and secular country. After his assassination by the military, general Ziaur Rahman took over the country and governed it from 1975 to 1981. During this time, Zia brought religion back into public life, welcomed the Jamaat-e-Islami from banishment (which had been due to its participation in the genocide of 1971), and—in 1978—formed the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on nationalist lines with a strong critical stance toward India. General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who took control after his own coup in 1982 and ruled until 1990, went further, declaring that Islam was the state’s religion. This provided a political contrast with the views of Mujib, and of his daughter Sheikh Hasina who took the reins of her father’s party, the Awami League, in 1981.

The stage was set for a long-term contest between Sheikh Hasina’s centrist-secular Awami League and the BNP, which was taken over by Zia’s wife Khaleda Zia after the General was assassinated in 1981. Gradually, the military—which had a secular orientation in its early days—began to witness a growing Islamist mood. Political Islam has grown in Bangladesh with the rise of piety in the general population, some of it driven by the Islamization of migrant labor to the Gulf states and to Southeast Asia. The latter has steadily reflected growth in observance of the Islamic faith in the aftermath of the war on terror’s many consequences. One should neither exaggerate this threat nor minimize it.

The relationship of the political Islamists, whose popular influence has grown since 2013, with the military is another factor that requires much more clarity. Given the dent in the fortunes of the Jamaat-e-Islami since the War Crimes Tribunal documented how the group was involved on the side of Pakistan during the liberation struggle, it is likely that this formation of political Islam has a threshold in terms of its legitimacy. However, one complicating factor is that the Hasina government relentlessly used the fear of “political Islam” as a bogeyman to obtain US and Indian silent consent to the two elections in 2018 and 2024. If the interim government holds a fair election on schedule, this will allow Bangladeshi people to find out if political Islam is a dispensation they wish to vote for.

New Cold War

Far away from the captivating issues put forward by the students which led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina are dangerous currents that are often not discussed during these exciting times. Bangladesh is the eighth-largest country in the world by population, and it has the second highest Gross Domestic Product in South Asia. The role it plays in the region and in the world is not to be discounted.

Over the course of the past decade, South Asia has faced significant challenges as the United States imposed a new cold war against China. Initially, India participated with the United States in the formations around the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. But, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India has begun to distance itself from this US initiative and tried to put its own national agenda at the forefront. This meant that India did not condemn Russia but continued to buy Russian oil. At the same time, China had—through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—built infrastructure in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, India’s neighbors.

It is perhaps not a coincidence that four governments in the region that had begun to collaborate with the BRI have fallen, and that their replacements in three of them are eager for better ties with the United States. This includes Shehbaz Sharif, who came to power in Pakistan in April 2022 with the ouster of Imran Khan (now in prison), Ranil Wickremesinghe, who briefly came to power in Sri Lanka in July 2022 after setting aside a mass uprising that had other ideas than the installation of a party with only one member in parliament (Wickremesinghe himself), and KP Sharma Oli, who came to power in July 2024 in Nepal after a parliamentary shuffle that removed the Maoists from power.

What role the removal of Sheikh Hasina will play in the calculations in the region can only be gauged after elections are held under the interim government. But there is little doubt that these decisions in Dhaka are not without their regional and global implications.

The students rely upon the power of the mass demonstrations for their legitimacy. What they do not have is an agenda for Bangladesh, which is why the old neoliberal technocrats are already swimming like sharks around the interim government. In their ranks are those who favor the BNP and the Islamists. What role they will play is yet to be seen.

If the student committee now formed a bloc with the trade unions, particularly the garment worker unions, there is the possibility that they might indeed form the opening for building a new democratic and people-centered Bangladesh. If they are unable to build this historical bloc, they may be pushed to the side, just like the students and workers in Egypt, and they might have to surrender their efforts to the military and an elite that has merely changed its jersey.

• This article was produced by Globetrotter.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Vijay Prashad.

“All sides in Bangladesh must ensure that journalists can report safely during this delicate time of political transition,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “The attacks on journalists and the blocking of internet and phone service during recent weeks of protests are unacceptable and need to stop immediately.”

At least three Bangladeshi journalists were killed covering unrest in July and dozens more were assaulted either by police, supporters of Hasina’s Awami League party, or protesters. Another journalist, Daily Khoborpatra newspaper correspondent Pradip Kumar Bhowmik, was reported killed on Sunday in northwest Sirajganj city, as well as other fresh attacks on the press.

Sunday’s renewed violence saw further attacks on the media, including The Business Standard newspaper reporters Miraz Hossain and Jahidul Islam, who were beaten in the capital Dhaka by supporters of the Jubo League, the youth wing of the Awami League, Hossain told CPJ.

In addition, the Dhaka offices of multiple pro-Awami League broadcasters including Somoy TV, Ekattor TV, and DBC News, were vandalized on Monday.

On Sunday, the government ordered its second mobile internet shutdown in three weeks and on Monday broadband services were suspended for about three hours. Services resumed on Monday afternoon as Hasina fled the country after protesters stormed her palace.

Army spokesperson Sami-Ud-Dowla Chowdhury and the Jubo League general secretary Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment via messaging app.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On Monday evening, about 20 to 25 men attacked Hasan, a reporter for the news website Jagonews24.com, in the capital Dhaka, according to the local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, news reports, and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.

“The beating of Bangladeshi journalist Md Nahid Hasan appears to be the latest attack on the press by supporters of the ruling Awami League,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Bangladesh authorities must swiftly and transparently investigate this incident and take immediate action to end reprisals against the media by ruling party affiliates. Violence against journalists must end.”

Hasan told CPJ that at around 10:30 p.m., he received information about a clash allegedly involving the Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League. The journalist called Md Rakibul Islam, a local leader of the Chhatra League, to ask about the reported attack and told him of his location in the Dhanmondi area to meet for an interview.

Around five minutes later, Tamzeed Rahman, a local leader of the Jubo League, the Awami League’s youth wing, arrived at the reporter’s location with about 20 to 25 men, and asked Hasan if he was a journalist. When Hasan confirmed this, the men grabbed him by the collar and slapped and beat him with their hands and fists until he fell to the ground, where they continued to kick and stomp on him, the journalist said.

Hasan said he attempted to show his attackers his press identification card, to which they responded, “You are a fake journalist.” The men also took his phone to check if he had filmed the clash and deleted some of his videos, including one of an arson attack on a bus, Hasan told CPJ. After about 20 minutes, the men returned his phone and left, he said.

Hasan said that bystanders told him that the Chhatra League’s Islam and the Jubo League’s Rahman attacked him.

Islam and Rahman told CPJ that they did not beat Hasan but rescued him from an attack. Hasan rejected that characterization of the attack and said that the police should be able to determine who was involved by analyzing security footage from the scene.

On Wednesday, the Chhatra League issued a statement, reviewed by CPJ, that dismissed Islam from his post for unspecified reasons.

Hasan said he sustained significant bruising all over his body and received painkillers at a local hospital. He said that he had filed a complaint at the Dhanmondi Police Station, but authorities had not opened a formal investigation as of November 22.

Habibur Rahman, Dhaka Metropolitan police commissioner, and Parvez Islam, officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi Police Station, did not respond to CPJ’s messages requesting comment.

The Chhatra League has been suspected in a number of assaults against journalists in recent months. Its members allegedly beat student journalists Abdul Alim and Abu Sayed Rony on western Bangladesh’s Rajshahi College campus on November 9, as well as student journalist Mosharrof Shah on the University of Chittagong campus on September 24.

Editor’s note: This alert has been updated to clarify the participants in the clash.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

At around 2:30 p.m. on November 9, around 20 men, allegedly members of the ruling Awami League party’s student wing Chhatra League, beat Alim, a reporter for the online news portal Rajshahi Post, and Rony, a correspondent for the online newspaper Bangladesh Journal, on the Rajshahi College campus in western Bangladesh, according to privately owned news website New Age, the local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, and Alim, who spoke with CPJ.

“Bangladeshi authorities and the Rajshahi College administration must immediately hold accountable those who attacked student journalists Abdul Alim and Abu Sayed Rony while reporting on the university campus,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, from Washington, D.C. “The government must take action against the deeply disturbing trend of the Chhatra League’s violence against student journalists on their campuses.”

The journalists were filming an argument between the university vice-principal along with professors and the men, who were led by undergraduate mathematics student Masud Rana, a Chhatra League member who was not permitted to take an examination after repeatedly missing class, according to those sources.

The men recognized Rony, an undergraduate mathematics student, as a journalist, but not Alim, an undergraduate history student, Alim told CPJ.

The men then beat and slapped the journalists, grabbed their collars, and repeatedly pushed them into a wall before they fell unconscious and woke up in the teachers’ lounge. The journalists were taken to the hospital, where Alim was treated for a blood clot in his back and significant bruising throughout his body, and Rony for a severe head inquiry, Alim said.

Following the attack, the journalists learned the perpetrators took their phones, which were returned to them broken, Alim said. Rony did not immediately respond to CPJ’s messages.

The Chhatra League leadership on campus subsequently suspended eight members for their alleged involvement in the attack. University officials have also appointed a committee to investigate the incident, Alim said.

Rony filed a complaint about the attack at the Boalia Police Station, but it was unclear whether a formal investigation had been opened, Alim said, adding that no suspects had been apprehended by the university or police as of November 13.

Rana and the officer-in-charge of the Boalia Police Station did not immediately respond to CPJ’s messages.

On September 24, around 15 to 20 alleged members of the Chhatra League beat student journalist Mosharrof Shah on the University of Chittagong campus.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The complaint, which CPJ reviewed, was filed by Md Shahinur Islam, who identified himself to The Daily Star as a reporter for the newspaper Amar Somoy, which supports the ruling Awami League party. It accused the journalists and other unnamed members of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party and Bangladesh Nationalist Party of working together to commit “anti-state crimes” and disseminate “conspiratorial news” in a July 27, 2023, Dainik Fulki article.

That article, titled “Asia’s longest-serving prime minister is finally resigning,” covered the resignation announcement of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen but mistakenly used a photo of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, president of the Awami League. The next day, the newspaper published a correction and apology, which CPJ reviewed.

Haque left Dainik Fulki around 2019 and was not involved in the article, the journalist told CPJ.

Sakib said he believed he was being targeted to undermine his campaign in the election for Savar Press Club president, which is set to be held in the coming months. He is opposed by about five journalists who strongly support the Awami League, he said.

Similarly, Haque said he believed he was being targeted for his campaign to be the press club’s organizing secretary. He is opposed by two journalists who strongly support the ruling party, he told CPJ.

The Savar Press Club is a trade group in the Dhaka district that advocates for issues, including wage distribution, labor rights, and journalist safety.

Sakib and Haque said they do not know Islam. Islam told CPJ via messaging app that his complaint was “accurate” and claimed the two journalists were involved in “information terrorism.” Islam did not respond to CPJ’s follow-up question about his journalistic background. CPJ called, messaged, and emailed the Amar Somoy newspaper for comment, but did not receive any replies.

Separately, on July 30, Sakib received a notice from the Dhaka district deputy commissioner’s office, reviewed by CPJ, ordering the journalist to explain within seven days why Dainik Fulki’s license to operate should not be canceled following an application filed by Manjurul Alam Rajib, chair of a local government unit and an Awami League leader in Savar. The notice alleges that the July 27 article “achieved the task of tarnishing the image of the state.”

Sakib’s response, dated August 6 and reviewed by CPJ, denied that allegation, expressed regret over the “unintentional mistake,” and mentioned the published correction and apology. Haque told CPJ that he did not receive a similar notice at that time.

Bangladesh’s next national election is set for January 2024 and expected to be met with increasing violence. In late July 2023, police fired at opposition party protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, and beat them amid mass arrests of Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders and activists.

In response to the government’s announcement on August 7 that the Digital Security Act will be replaced, CPJ called on authorities to ensure the new Cyber Security Act complies with international human rights law.

Hasan Mahmud, Bangladesh’s information minister and Awami League joint secretary, and Dipak Chandra Saha, officer-in-charge of the Savar Model Police Station, did not respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app. CPJ also contacted Rajib and Anisur Rahman, Dhaka district deputy commissioner, via messaging app for comment, but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

At around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 14, a group of men ambushed Nadim, a correspondent for privately owned website Banglanews24 and broadcaster Ekattor TV, while he was traveling home on his motorcycle in the Bakshiganj area in the Jamalpur district of northern Mymensingh division, according to news reports, security footage of the incident published by Ekattor TV, and a witness account by Al Mujaheed, a journalist present at the scene.

A group of 15 to 20 men dragged Nadim to a dark alley, where they severely beat him and left him unconscious before he was taken to the hospital by bystanders. The journalist died the next day from excessive blood loss caused by a severe head injury.

Nadim’s family believes he was targeted in retaliation for his May 2023 series of reports for Banglanews24 about Mahmudul Alam Babu, chair of a local government unit and member of the ruling Awami League party, according to those reports. Babu denied any involvement in the attack.

Sohel Rana, officer-in-charge of the Bakshiganj police station, said six people had been arrested in connection with the attack, Prothom Alo reported Friday.

“We condemn the killing of Bangladeshi journalist Golam Rabbani Nadim in apparent retaliation for his reporting on a local politician,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Bangladesh authorities must ensure that all those involved in this attack are brought to justice and end the country’s appalling record of impunity pertaining to violence against journalists.”

Al Mujaheed said in his witness account that Babu was at the scene and directing the attackers from a distance. CPJ’s calls to Babu, who was reported to be in hiding as of Friday evening, did not connect. CPJ’s text message to Babu did not immediately receive a response.

Nadim’s May articles concerned issues in Babu’s marriage, including a press conference by a woman who alleged the politician secretly married her, then abused and divorced her. Nadim also posted about the allegations on Facebook.

In mid-May, Babu filed a complaint against Nadim under the Digital Security Act for that reporting. Hours before the attack, Nadim posted on Facebook that a court had dismissed the case.

The Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary unit of the Bangladesh police, has joined the probe into Nadim’s death. CPJ’s calls and messages to Rana and Khandaker Al Moyeen, director of the legal and media wing of the Rapid Action Battalion, did not immediately receive a reply.

Local press groups, the Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media and the Bakshiganj Press Club, both condemned the killing, saying Nadim, who was also vice president of the Jamalpur District Online Journalists Association, was targeted due to his reporting.

Al Mujaheed told CPJ via messaging app, and Raju, Nadim’s brother-in-law, told CPJ by phone separately that they were unable to immediately comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On March 15, police assaulted at least nine journalists on the court’s premises in the capital city of Dhaka after clashes broke out between lawyers supporting the ruling Awami League party and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and police charged into the crowd swinging their batons, according to multiple news reports and five of those journalists, who spoke with CPJ.

The deputy commissioner of the Dhaka police’s Ramna division told news website Bdnews24.com later on March 15 that “journalists got caught up in the turmoil” when officers attempted to break up the unrest, and police were investigating the attacks.

On March 16, Dhaka police officials expressed regret over the incident in a meeting with local journalists but, as of March 29, have not held any of the officers involved in the attacks to account, the journalists told CPJ. 

“The recent apology by the Dhaka police over officers’ attacks on at least nine Bangladeshi journalists is a welcome but insufficient response,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “Bangladeshi authorities must hold the officers who attacked journalists to account, return any equipment confiscated from reporters, and ensure that police are thoroughly trained so they can help, rather than imperil, members of the press covering newsworthy events.”

Two officers with the police Public Order Management Division slapped Zabed Akhter, a senior reporter for the privately owned broadcaster ATN News, shoved him to the ground, and kicked him as he repeatedly identified himself as a journalist and told them he suffered from a nerve condition, Akhter told CPJ by phone.

Police also pushed Jannatul Ferdous Tanvi, a senior reporter for the privately owned broadcaster Independent Television, as she tried to help him, Akhter said.

Later that day, Akhter received medical treatment for internal injuries to his waist and back at a hospital, where the two officers apologized to the journalist, Akhter said, adding that those officers had not been held to account for the incident as of March 29.

A group of 10 to 15 officers kicked and used a bamboo stick to beat Md. Humaun Kabir, a senior camera operator for the privately owned broadcaster ATN Bangla who was filming the unrest, knocking him to the ground, Kabir told CPJ by phone. Officers continued to slap him as he ran away, according to a video of the incident reviewed by CPJ. Kabir sustained a head injury for which he took painkillers. 

Five or six officers beat Maruf Hasan, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Manab Zamin, in the head and back while he identified himself as a journalist, he told CPJ via messaging app.  Officers also insulted him with vulgar language and confiscated his microphone, which they had not returned as of March 29, Hasan said.

He told CPJ that he sustained painful injuries to the areas that were beaten.

About five police officers also beat Mohammad Fazlul Haque, a senior reporter for the privately owned news website Jago News, according to Haque, who told CPJ via messaging app that he had been beaten but then did not respond to additional questions seeking details.  

According to those news reports and the journalists who spoke with CPJ, police also attacked Nur Mohammad, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Ajker Patrika; Ibrahim Hossain, a camera operator for the privately owned broadcaster Boishakhi Television; Kabir Hossain, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Kalbela; and Mehedi Hassan Dalim, a reporter for the privately owned news website The Dhaka Post.

CPJ contacted those journalists via messaging app seeking additional details but did not receive any replies.

Suvra Kanti Das, a senior photojournalist for the privately owned newspaper Prothom Alo, told CPJ by phone that he was also covering the elections when an officer grabbed him by the shirt, demanded to see his media identification card, insulted him with vulgar language, and ordered him to leave the premises, which he did.

CPJ’s calls and messages to Roy Niyati, a spokesperson for the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Dainik Dinkal suspended operations on February 20 after the Bangladesh Press Council, a quasi-judicial, government-funded body headed by a former High Court judge, rejected its appeal against a government shutdown order, Biswas told CPJ.

“The shutdown of Dainik Dinkal is a blatant attack on media freedom ahead of Bangladesh’s January 2024 national election,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “Closing a newspaper violates the democratic principles purportedly espoused by the Awami League-led government, and we call on the Bangladesh Press Council to review its order and uphold the free flow of information.”  

The district administration in the capital, Dhaka, accused Dainik Dinkal on December 26 of violating local law on grounds that its publisher was a convicted criminal, but the publisher named in the order resigned the post in 2016, Biswas said.

Biswas told CPJ that the newspaper had filed documentation before the Press Council’s ruling that Tarique Rahman, acting chair of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was no longer Dainik Dinkal’s publisher. Rahman has been convicted of several criminal and money laundering charges, and lives overseas.  

Dainik Dinkal covers BNP activities and has frequently criticized the ruling Awami League party, including the arrests of BNP politicians and supporters in what rights groups have characterized as a crackdown ahead of elections next year. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the polls will be “fair and free.”

CPJ emailed Mohammad Mominur Rahman, the Dhaka deputy commissioner who filed the government order, and Mohammed Nizamul Huq Nasim, head of the Bangladesh Press Council and its three-member appeal board, but did not receive any replies.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On December 25, in the Rangunia region of the southeastern Chittagong division, a group of six to seven men confronted Azad, a reporter covering the environment and politics for the privately owned newspaper The Business Standard, while he was photographing brick kilns that were allegedly operating illegally, according to multiple news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Azad identified himself as a journalist, and the men then forced him into a vehicle at gunpoint, and they threatened to kill him; they then beat him and brought him to a local government official’s office, where they assaulted him further and robbed him, he told CPJ, saying he was released after about 90 minutes.

Azad suffered a neck fracture and pain in his chest, abdomen, and hands, according to the journalist and medical documents that CPJ reviewed.

“The abduction and gruesome beating of Abu Azad demonstrate the grave dangers facing journalists who cover environmental issues in Bangladesh,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must swiftly and thoroughly investigate this incident and hold the perpetrators accountable. Bangladesh must put an end to its dreadful record of impunity involving attacks on journalists.”

Azad told CPJ that one of the attackers was Mohiuddin Talukder Mohan, a member of the Islampur Union Parishad government unit, and said he was brought to Mohan’s office, where three additional men joined the others. The men deactivated the office’s security cameras, beat him with their hands and pistols, kicked him repeatedly, and confiscated his mobile phone, wallet, and identification card, Azad told CPJ.

At the office, Mohan called Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, chair of the Islampur Union Parishad, who threatened the journalist, saying, “nothing will happen if a journalist like you was killed,” and then ordered the men to beat Azad further and destroy his phone, Azad told CPJ.

The men withdrew all the money from Azad’s mobile banking app, bKash, and stole 10,000 taka (US$97) in cash that he carried with him, the journalist told CPJ, adding that they demanded an additional 50,000 taka (US$486) as ransom, which he did not provide.

While releasing him, one of the men hit Azad on the neck with a steel rod, the journalist told CPJ. As of Wednesday, January 4, Azad had not received his phone, wallet, money, or identification card, he said.

CPJ contacted Mohan via messaging app for comment but did not receive any reply. CPJ texted Chowdhury for comment but did not receive any response.

On December 26, Azad filed a police complaint against 10 people, including Mohan and Chowdhury, for assault, extortion, kidnapping, and attempted murder, according to the journalist and The Business Standard.

Police arrested one suspect that day, identified as the manager of a brick kiln, who appeared in court on Wednesday, January 4, and was ordered to be transferred to jail, the journalist and The Business Standard said. On Tuesday, January 3, the Bangladesh High Court granted anticipatory bail to Mohan and Chowdhury, protecting them from arrest for four weeks, Azad said, adding that the other suspects have not been apprehended.

CPJ sent a request for comment via messaging app to Md Mahbub Milky, officer-in-charge at the Rangunia Model Police Station, where Azad filed his complaint, but did not receive any response.

Mohan and Chowdhury are both members of the ruling Awami League party and both have business and political interests in the kilns, Azad told CPJ.

CPJ emailed the Awami League for comment but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On December 25, in the Rangunia region of the southeastern Chittagong division, a group of six to seven men confronted Azad, a reporter covering the environment and politics for the privately owned newspaper The Business Standard, while he was photographing brick kilns that were allegedly operating illegally, according to multiple news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

Azad identified himself as a journalist, and the men then forced him into a vehicle at gunpoint, and they threatened to kill him; they then beat him and brought him to a local government official’s office, where they assaulted him further and robbed him, he told CPJ, saying he was released after about 90 minutes.

Azad suffered a neck fracture and pain in his chest, abdomen, and hands, according to the journalist and medical documents that CPJ reviewed.

“The abduction and gruesome beating of Abu Azad demonstrate the grave dangers facing journalists who cover environmental issues in Bangladesh,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Authorities must swiftly and thoroughly investigate this incident and hold the perpetrators accountable. Bangladesh must put an end to its dreadful record of impunity involving attacks on journalists.”

Azad told CPJ that one of the attackers was Mohiuddin Talukder Mohan, a member of the Islampur Union Parishad government unit, and said he was brought to Mohan’s office, where three additional men joined the others. The men deactivated the office’s security cameras, beat him with their hands and pistols, kicked him repeatedly, and confiscated his mobile phone, wallet, and identification card, Azad told CPJ.

At the office, Mohan called Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, chair of the Islampur Union Parishad, who threatened the journalist, saying, “nothing will happen if a journalist like you was killed,” and then ordered the men to beat Azad further and destroy his phone, Azad told CPJ.

The men withdrew all the money from Azad’s mobile banking app, bKash, and stole 10,000 taka (US$97) in cash that he carried with him, the journalist told CPJ, adding that they demanded an additional 50,000 taka (US$486) as ransom, which he did not provide.

While releasing him, one of the men hit Azad on the neck with a steel rod, the journalist told CPJ. As of Wednesday, January 4, Azad had not received his phone, wallet, money, or identification card, he said.

CPJ contacted Mohan via messaging app for comment but did not receive any reply. CPJ texted Chowdhury for comment but did not receive any response.

On December 26, Azad filed a police complaint against 10 people, including Mohan and Chowdhury, for assault, extortion, kidnapping, and attempted murder, according to the journalist and The Business Standard.

Police arrested one suspect that day, identified as the manager of a brick kiln, who appeared in court on Wednesday, January 4, and was ordered to be transferred to jail, the journalist and The Business Standard said. On Tuesday, January 3, the Bangladesh High Court granted anticipatory bail to Mohan and Chowdhury, protecting them from arrest for four weeks, Azad said, adding that the other suspects have not been apprehended.

CPJ sent a request for comment via messaging app to Md Mahbub Milky, officer-in-charge at the Rangunia Model Police Station, where Azad filed his complaint, but did not receive any response.

Mohan and Chowdhury are both members of the ruling Awami League party and both have business and political interests in the kilns, Azad told CPJ.

CPJ emailed the Awami League for comment but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On the evening of September 12, 2020, Nomani and his two friends approached and greeted Serniabat Sadiq Abdullah, the mayor of the Barisal City Corporation, a municipal administration that oversees the development and maintenance of the city. Abdullah appeared on a Facebook Live in the area earlier that evening.

Nomani said that Abdullah slapped him, shouted and cursed at him and his friends, criticized his report published on August 29, 2020, in Barisal Khabar regarding the Barisal City Corporation’s alleged lack of action to address flooding in the city, and accused him of “reporting against [him].”

Abdullah was at the scene with around nine of his associates, comprised of Barisal City Corporation employees, and leaders of the ruling Awami League party and Chhatra League organization, the student wing of the Awami League, the journalist said. Abdullah is the former joint secretary of the Awami League branch in Barisal.

Abdullah ordered his associates to confiscate the mobile phones of the journalist and his two friends, before Abdullah and his associates submerged the journalist into the Kirtankhola River for several minutes, Nomani said. After taking him out of the water, Abdullah and Syed Ahmed Manna, a ward councilor of the Barisal City Corporation who was present at the scene, beat him repeatedly with an iron rod as four of Abdullah’s associates held him down, according to the journalist.

Throughout the incident, Nomani fell in and out of consciousness, broke three of his fingers, and sustained painful injuries across his body, specifically his head and chest, according to the journalist and copies of his medical reports, which CPJ reviewed.

Nomani told CPJ that he believes Abdullah targeted him due to his report, adding that his two friends were not submerged in the water, nor were they attacked as severely as the journalist.

After the alleged assault, Abdullah’s associates took Nomani and his two friends to Barisal’s Kotwali police station, where he fully regained consciousness, he said, adding that police filed an application at the Barisal Metropolitan Magistrate Court for the three men to be transferred to the Barisal Central Jail, without being produced in front of a magistrate, which would allow the judiciary to assess their state of health.

Syed Ahmed Manna, a ward councilor of the Barisal City Corporation who was present at the scene with Abdullah, filed a complaint against Nomani and his friends, alleging that the three had secretly recorded videos of Abdullah, his wife, and children while they were going for a walk in the area around 1:30 a.m. on September 13, 2020 in violation of the Digital Security Act, according to news reports and Nomani.

Nomani told CPJ that he denies these allegations and claimed that the alleged assault occurred around 10:30 p.m., and he was brought to the police station before 1:30 a.m., adding that he could not have recorded such videos because Abdullah’s associates confiscated his phone.

Barisal police sent the mobile phones of the three accused to the Dhaka police’s criminal investigation department for forensic review, Nomani said, adding that to date, the department has not produced a forensic report detailing its findings and the phones have not been returned.

Later on September 13, Mohammed Nurul Islam, the then officer-in-charge of the Kotwali police station, filed a first information report, the first step of a police investigation, against Nomani and his two friends, according to news reports and a copy of the report, which CPJ reviewed.

Islam claimed that when Abdullah and his family sensed that they were being filmed, the journalist and his friends attempted to flee, but were chased and arrested by police at the scene, according to those sources.

The first information report accused Nomani and his two friends of violating sections of the Digital Security Act pertaining to unauthorized collection of identity information and holding or transferring data illegally, according to those sources.

Each of those sections carry a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine between 50,000 taka (US$582) and 100,000 taka (US$1,164), according to the law.

Nomani did not receive medical attention for his injuries throughout his 17-day detention,according to the journalist, who said that on September 22, the 10th day of his detention, he was taken to a local hospital in Barisal on Abdullah’s instruction, where his broken fingers were x-rayed. The journalist did not receive further medical treatment before he was returned to jail, he said.

It was not until Nomani was released on interim bail on September 29, 2020, that the journalist received medical attention for his broken fingers and other injuries, he said.

The Digital Security Act proceedings against Nomani continue as of early February 2022, and Nomani must appear in court every month, as he has not yet been granted permanent bail, he said, adding that police have yet to file a chargesheet in the case.

Nomani told CPJ that in January 2021 and December 2021, respectively, Abdullah and Manna asked Nomani’s colleagues at The Daily Shahnama if the journalist was still in Barisal and threatened him, saying he should leave the city. Two witnesses supporting Abdullah also approached Nomani and pressured him to leave the city in August 2021 and fall 2021, according to the journalist.

Abdullah did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via email and messaging app. Manna and Azimul Karim, the newly appointed officer-in-charge of Barisal’s Kotwali police station, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app. The Awami League, Chhatra League, and media officer of the Dhaka criminal investigation department did not respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On October 7, members of the All European Awami League, a Europe-focused branch of Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League party, filed a complaint with the Globen police department in Sweden’s Stockholm county against Khalil, editor-in-chief of the Sweden-based news website Netra News, claiming that the journalist had engaged in “a consistent effort to peddle a wave of disinformation and slanders against the government of Bangladesh” through Netra News, according to news reports and Khalil, who spoke with CPJ in a phone interview.

The complaint also alleges that Khalil, who lives in Sweden, has been “spreading smears and rumors to confuse the public and often casting as persons against the Prime Minister and her family members,” according to those reports.

Khalil told CPJ that the police have not contacted him, and he has not seen the complaint himself; CPJ was unable to review a copy of the complaint. The Swedish police can decide whether to pursue an investigation into the complaint, Khalil said.

“Bangladesh authorities and political leaders need to accept critical coverage by journalists like Tasneem Khalil, and stop trying to muzzle their voices through ceaseless harassment,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “The All European Awami League should withdraw its complaint against Khalil, and Bangladesh authorities must stop harassing Khalil and his family, and allow journalists to do their work without interference.”

Netra News has recently published a number of columns criticizing the Bangladesh government, the Awami League, and the crackdown on press freedom in the country.

CPJ emailed the All European Awami League and the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who also serves as president of the Awami League, for comment, but did not receive any replies.

When CPJ called the Swedish national police, an officer declined to comment and requested that CPJ submit questions via email. When CPJ emailed the national police for comment, an officer referred questions to the Stockholm county police. CPJ emailed that office for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

Separately, authorities in Bangladesh have repeatedly harassed Khalil’s mother, the journalist said.

On April 9, 2020, members of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, the intelligence section of the Bangladesh armed forces, visited the home of Khalil’s mother, Nazneen Khalil, questioned her about her private life, and asked her to speak to Khalil regarding his journalistic work which they alleged “tarnishes the image of the country,” according to news reports and a Facebook post by Khalil at the time.

On October 27, 2020, members of the Special Branch of the police in the northeastern Bangladesh city of Sylhet, where Nazneen Khalil lives, questioned her about the whereabouts of Khalil and his siblings, who are not journalists, according to Khalil and his Facebook post at the time.

CPJ called and emailed the office of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, but received error messages. Mofiz Uddin Ahmed, deputy inspector general of the Sylhet police, did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment.

On September 12, the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal accepted Digital Security Act charges against Khalil on the basis of a police report that alleged that he made derogatory comments about government officials on his Facebook page and “instigated” Kabir Kishore, a Bangladeshi cartoonist, to “make anti-state rumors go viral on social media,” as CPJ documented at the time.

On October 6, police in Dhaka arrested Nusrat Shahrin Raka, the sister of exiled journalist Kanak Sarwar in apparent retaliation for his critical coverage of the Bangladesh government and ruling Awami League, as CPJ documented. Yesterday, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka denied Raka’s bail application, according to Sarwar, who spoke to CPJ via phone.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.