Concern over attacks on peaceful activism of scholars, students

The state of academic freedom in Bangladesh is worrying, said Scholars at Risk this week. The global network is “concerned about attacks on scholars’ and students’ peaceful, expressive activity” and called on the authorities to commit to protecting and promoting academic freedom and institutional autonomy.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) said in its 2021 Free to Think report, published on Thursday 9 December, that scholars had been fired in Bangladesh for public expression that was critical of government figures and that violence had been used by police and civilians to restrict and retaliate against student expression.

“Arrests, disciplinary actions and violence intended to restrict or retaliate against such conduct undermine academic freedom and higher education’s capacity to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the pursuit of truth,” the report said.

SAR also called on higher education authorities “to protect academic freedom and to refrain from disciplinary actions that punish scholars for non-violent expressive activity”. It requested governments and higher education stakeholders around the world to urge their Bangladeshi counterparts to ensure academic freedom in the country.

Free to Think said that during the reporting period of September 2020 to August 2021, there had been two incidents in which higher education institutions had fired scholars for publicly expressing criticism of political figures.

Scholars fired

Morshed Hasan Khan, a professor at the country’s leading public Dhaka University, was fired for writing a newspaper article in March 2018 “about the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and the role of the country’s first president, Ziaur Rahman”. He was accused of “distorting the liberation war history” and “disrespecting the father of the nation”.

Khan was dismissed on 9 September 2020, after appearing in a tribunal for “moral turpitude” or “inefficiency”. Rights group Amnesty International claimed that there were procedural flaws in Dhaka University’s disciplinary proceedings. It said Khan was denied a representative during proceedings and that the allegations noted in the tribunal decision did not relate to the original allegations brought against him.

In another incident, in September 2020, AKM Wahiduzzaman, an assistant professor in the country’s largest university, the National University of Bangladesh, was “dismissed for alleged Facebook posts published in 2013 about the country’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her family”.

Wahiduzzaman told Human Rights Watch that he did not author the posts and that they were published under a fake account. The assistant professor was arrested in 2013 and held in custody for a month. In 2014 he was charged under Bangladesh’s Information and Communication Technology Act. In May 2016 he fled the country.

Students attacked

The SAR report said that the use of force, violent clashes and arrests of student protesters threatened student freedom of expression in Bangladesh. It listed several incidents.

On 8 November 2020, police clashed with medical students during a protest at Dhaka University. On 25 March 2021, also at Dhaka University, alleged members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling political party, attacked students who were protesting against a visit by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The report said that alleged BCL members reportedly “used bricks and sticks to attack the student protesters, who were marching on campus and planning to burn an effigy of Modi”.

In another incident on 27 November, alleged staff members of Shah Mokhdum Medical College attacked a group of students on campus. On 7 February 2021, police in Dhaka assailed students with batons during a protest over higher education policies.

On 17 February 2021, at least 25 Barisal University students were attacked by a large group in retaliation for a student protest that took place the day before. Students had protested outside a local bus terminal in response to news that two classmates were assaulted by transit workers.

And on 1 June 2021, alleged BCL members attacked supporters of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, on the Dhaka University campus.

Academic freedom dwindling

“The report shows the dwindling situation of academic freedom in Bangladesh. This is very concerning,” Mubashar Hasan, an adjunct researcher at the Humanitarian and Development Research Initiative at Western Sydney University in Australia, told University World News.

“Cases featured in the report show that a section of academics and university administration are working to suppress academic freedom.”

Hasan, who was an assistant professor at Bangladesh’s North South University, said both students and academics are victimised for expressing dissenting views, “which is contradictory to the founding principles of Bangladesh”. He believes academics need to show greater solidarity in defending freedoms in Bangladeshi universities.

Despite repeated attempts, Bangladesh’s University Grants Commission Chair Professor Kazi Shahidullah could not be reached for comment.