A brutal murder on the October 6 night at Bangladesh’s top engineering university has shaped up into a rallying point for unity against violence and abuse of power. Abrar Fahad, 22, a second-year student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), was bludgeoned with cricket stumps for hours by a group of students tied to the ruling party.
Video footage from a security camera provided easy leads for the police to identify the suspects. Some students carried the lifeless boy down the well-lit corridor away from a dormitory room used as a “torture den” by the rogue members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League. The assailants then dumped the body on the first-floor stairway of the dormitory. His apparent fault: he criticised a recent government deal with India on social media. Initial details suggested that Fahad was an activist of the Islami Chhatra Shibir, a student network backed by the Jamaat-e-Islami, a controversial Islamist party. But the allegation was not tenable.
The grisly episode sparked fury among students on campus and a chorus of condemnation from various circles, including some foreign diplomats based in Dhaka. Student politics emerged as the central theme of the week that followed. Protesters called for the university authorities to banish the students with links to the murder from the institution. Former students of BUET came down hard on the university’s top brass for failing to restore discipline on campus.
Amid mounting protests, the university banned political activity on the campus and suspended the students accused of having roles in the killing. The authorities also promised steps to stop ragging. The student wing of the Awami League that came under severe criticism swiftly expelled 12 leaders and activists with suspected links to the murder. Police arrested 20 people and promised to fast-track the investigation into the closely-watched case to speed up the trials of suspects.
At a media briefing on October 9, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina termed the murder “extremely cruel” and pledged that the killers, regardless of their political leanings, would be sentenced to the strictest punishment.
Culture of violence
The killing shed new light on the culture of violence in public universities. Political activists use bullying and torture as tactics to force new students to attend rallies and meetings. Allegations of extortion are rife. Ruling parties historically depended on their student networks for political leverage.
The murder drew immediate reactions from the UN. “Campus violence in Bangladesh has over the years affected and claimed too many lives, with apparent impunity for those bearing responsibility,” the UN said. The organisation called for independent investigations that “should lead to justice being served in a fair process, and measures to ensure prevention of further incidents”.
“Freedom of speech is a human right, and nobody should be harassed, tortured or killed for exercising it,” the UN said.
The British High Commission in Dhaka said it was “shocked and saddened” by the events at BUET. “The #U.K. stands unconditionally for free speech, media freedom, human rights and the rule of law,” the High Commission tweeted. Public condemnation by foreign diplomatic missions in Dhaka did not go well with the government. On October 15, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said the statements over the murder went “beyond the norms”. “The government was not involved in the murder. But still they link it to good governance and freedom of speech,” Mr. Momen said.
Macabre details surrounding the murder are coming into sharp focus as the investigation is in full swing. Before his death, Fahad repeatedly begged for water to drink but the assailants were unmoved, a suspect told reporters at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Dhaka on October 16. S.M. Nasmus Sadat, named in the case as a suspect, said Fahad collapsed after hours of torture but was not taken to hospital.
To wrap up their protests, hundreds of students swore an oath in the presence of Vice-Chancellor Saiful Islam and other teachers to shun and resist campus violence. But they did not immediately go back to classes.
Mr. Islam, who faced protesters’ wrath for failing to visit the grieving students soon after the death of Fahad, promised to expel the suspects from the university. “We just need the probe report,” he said.
(Arun Devnath is a journalist based in Dhaka)
