We Accuse!
Independent researchers accuse the ruling Awami League government of massacre.
Illustration: @debashish.chakrabarty
Since 16 July 2024, we have observed how the Awami League - led government of Bangladesh, which has questionably secured itself into power for the last 15 years, has issued a crackdown on a nonviolent protest initiated by students and later joined by all classes and groups of people. The government crackdown resulted in the deployment of law enforcement, and the political, military and paramilitary repressive state apparatuses, including Bangladesh Chhatra League, Police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guards (BGB) and Army personnel, who have been documented assaulting, beating, and shooting protesters. These repressive actions have led to the deaths of at least 250 people, as documented by national and international media, and the real toll, some of them fear, could be in the ranks of thousands.
The fear is genuine, as most national media has failed to portray the atrocities committed by the government amidst a nationwide internet blackout and heavy censorship. Moreover, people’s narrated experiences and social media documentations, including video and photographic evidence, show that the state-led violence is one of the biggest massacres committed in a capital city by its own government.
It takes an emotional bearing when we go through the videos of how people were intentionally shot and killed from point-blank range, or when witnesses share their experiences of holding their friends with their skulls blown out. Along with such repression, the government has deployed its law-enforcement and military forces to abduct people while block-raiding houses at night.
All throughout this ongoing state-led brutality, the government of Bangladesh and its apparatuses continue to deny their criminal actions, such as denying the recorded evidences of beating, shooting and killing in the first investigation reports (FIRs) by the law enforcement agency, press briefings by the government officials i.e. members of parliaments, and through the statements by pro-government politicians and social/cultural elites on news and social media. However, the public outcry and the traumatic experience of those close to the dead and the tortured surely tell a different story.
As independent researchers, our observations and personal experiences reflect the accounts of the oppressed people of Bangladesh. We hereby condemn this government for, and accuse them of massacre. We firmly believe that the recent event has proven that this government is not ‘by the people, of the people, for the people’.
To ensure a democratic and safe environment in the country, we demand that the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, immediately step down from her designation along with her cabinet.
No ultimatum of any number of hours can equate the horror of the bloodshed this government has caused.
Signed hereby,
Parvez Alam, Cultural Analyst
Debashish Chakrabarty, Power Politics and Civil Imagination Researcher
Anupam Debashis Roy, Social Movements Researcher
Haque Muhammad Ishfaq, Computer Scientist
Manjurul Mahmud Dhrubo, Political Communications Researcher
Meem Arafat Manab, Computer Scientist and Digital Law Researcher
Nafisa Raihana, Biophysicist
Sohul Ahmed, Genocide Studies Researcher
Sarwar Tusher, Post-/de-colonial Studies and State Violence Researcher
Mahi Shafiullah, Machine Learning Researcher
Audity Nowshin, Educational Studies Researcher
Tahniat Afsari, Nanoscientist
Dr Asif Mahmood, Computer Scientist, Image and Video Processing Researcher
Syed Hasan Imtiaz, Social Epidemiologist
Sumi Anjuman, Artistic Researcher
Khandaker Toor Azad, Development Economics Researcher
Shrobona Shafique Dipti, Urban Anthropologist
Shoeb Abdullah, Digital Rights Researcher
Nisharggo Niloy, Decolonial Studies Researcher
Farhadul Islam, Computer Scientist
Sadiqul Sakif, Computer Scientist
Aditi Sharif, Social Anthropologist
Joyanta Jyoti Mondal, Machine Learning Researcher
Sabik Khair, Life Science Researcher
Rawhatur Rabbi, Computer Scientist
Arefin Mizan, Public Health Researcher
Nafiz Imtiaz Rafin, Data Scientist
Apon Das, Cultural Anthropologist
Mohammad Yeasin Ali, System Security Researcher
Faysal Zaman, Artistic Researcher
Anika Tahsin Miami, Computational Social Scientist
Fahim Bin Selim, Theoretical Physicist
The Independent Researchers’ Alliance stemmed as a Free Association responding to the current political crisis and state-led atrocities in Bangladesh. nisharggoniloy@gmail.com