(London) – Scores of teachers and college students at public universities in Bangladesh have been arbitrarily punished due to their alleged affiliation with former ruler Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League celebration, Human Rights Watch stated right now.
Any motion to punish individuals for his or her peaceable beliefs or with out guaranteeing due course of would violate the rights to freedom of expression and affiliation protected beneath worldwide human rights regulation and reproduce abusive makes an attempt beneath earlier administrations to regulate political opinion and expression at Bangladesh’s public universities.
“Bangladesh has a long history of political debate in its universities, and only autocrats should fear such discourse, not a government formed following student protests,” stated Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Bangladesh needs to turn the page on the repression of the past, not repeat it whenever the ruling and opposition parties trade places.”
The sanctions-dismissals, suspension, and instructing restrictions-focus on allegations that they had been complicit in violence by Hasina’s Awami League authorities, which was toppled by student-led protests in 2024, allegations of different “subversive” actions in assist of her celebration, or their alleged discrimination in opposition to college students carrying Islamic clothes. Hundreds of scholars, allegedly Awami League members and supporters, are additionally being expelled, denying them their schooling rights.
Human Rights Watch interviewed over a dozen affected academics, examined college correspondence, and reviewed and analyzed a televised dialogue and a video posted on social media. Interviews with academics and college students additionally confirmed expulsions, cancellation of examination certificates, or barring college students from campus.
According to media studies in August 2026, not less than 404 extra teachers at 22 universities, who had been a part of a pro-Awami League Telegram messaging app group, have been put beneath investigation. “What is happening now is that the university authorities are targeting with false allegations the group of teachers who are aligned to the Awami League and did not support the 2024 student movement,” stated a professor at a public college, who isn’t recognized for safety causes. “We are not allowed to go take classes, we cannot do research work, we cannot do anything.”
Hundreds of individuals had been killed in a brutal police crackdown on the protests in July and August 2024, which pressured Hasina to flee and paved the best way for the return of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to energy following an election in February 2026. The actions of the Awami League had been criminalized by an interim authorities in May 2025.
For years, Bangladesh’s universities have been run in a partisan method, using and selling teachers near the celebration in authorities and appearing in opposition to supporters of different political events.
Starting in September 2024, the newly appointed authorities at Dhaka University, the nation’s most prestigious college, ordered 44 teachers to cease their work and restricted instructing assignments of one other 25, and not using a clear or credible disciplinary investigation. Subsequently, six of the lecturers had been formally “temporarily suspended” following the findings of an inquiry committee, and related investigations have now begun in opposition to one other 14 academics.
At Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh, the authorities dismissed, suspended, or eliminated 12 teachers and demoted or restricted the actions of one other 34 after organising an “investigation commission,” although this didn’t seem to adjust to the college’s legally established disciplinary course of. And in Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka, 12 teachers have been quickly suspended and one other 10 faraway from educational actions following an inquiry course of that academics stated they weren’t allowed to attend, an obvious breach of the regulation protecting educational self-discipline. Another 85 academics had been denied promotions.
In all, over 20 public universities have been affected, Human Rights Watch discovered.
In March 2025, Dhaka University quickly suspended 126 college students, and withheld their examination certificates, after a fact-finding committee stated it had discovered photographic, video, or social media proof that they’d attacked peaceable protesters. Cases filed with the police allege that one other 277 Awami League college students had been concerned. The college authorities have taken no formal motion in opposition to them, however college students and academics confirmed that they avoid campus for concern of arrest. Many of these named deny any function within the violence, but the college has not offered a discussion board for them to reply the allegations.
Among the lecturers affected is Professor Mashiur Rahman, from the Dhaka University sociology division, who since 2017 was deputed as a vice-chancellor at one other college. He was advised to cease all educational and administrative work on September 25, 2024. The allegations in opposition to him embrace claims that throughout the protests he “directly opposed the movement, calling it illegal, baseless and irrational,” throughout a July 2024 tv dialogue, though a video of the published, reviewed by Human Rights Watch, exhibits no such remark.
Another allegation is that on the prime minister’s home on August 3, 2024, he “incited genocide.” However, this was a gathering arrange by the University Grants Commission that every one vice-chancellors needed to attend, and he has advised Human Rights Watch that no proof has been offered to him displaying that he made such a press release, which he denies. On August 31, 2026, the college authorities advisable completely suspending him, which he’s interesting.
The allegations in opposition to the sanctioned academics on the Bangladesh Agriculture University heart on their participation in a pro-Awami League march on August 4, 2024, the day earlier than Hasina fled the nation. A report by a Commission of Inquiry arrange by the college refers back to the march as a “terrorist” procession.
A video posted on Facebook by the Bangladesh Agricultural University Journalists’ Association on August 4, 2024, and analyzed by Human Rights Watch, exhibits a scene from the march. In the video, a bunch will be seen strolling on the campus chanting slogans. No direct confrontations are seen. Professor Purba Islam from the Department of Pharmacology was suspended on August 4, 2025, for her “sloganizing” on the procession, alleging “support for the oppression, persecution and genocide committed by the fascist and autocrat Sheikh Hasina.” No proof of her shouting slogans is seen within the video.
Professor Yahia Khandoker, from the college’s Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, was additionally suspended on August 4, 2025, accused of sustaining “on the university campus, a clear position in favor of Sheikh Hasina’s mass killing.” Throughout the entire protest interval, he stated, he was together with his household in Dhaka, not on the college. The High Court has stayed his suspension, although the Attorney General’s Office is interesting.
Three teachers, two of them in jail, had been convicted by the nation’s International Crimes Tribunal on crimes in opposition to humanity fees, with one other awaiting trial.
“Any acts of revenge against people who peacefully supported the previous government would show that freedoms of speech and assembly are not protected,” Ganguly stated. “Universities should be places where people are free to express their views, not places where support is enforced for the government of the day.”
Source: Human Rights Watch