Last month, the Bangladeshi government cracked down on protests by young people against it and the administration of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Over 200 students have been killed and over 7000 injured. They need the help of the rest of the world now.

Shafiqul Islam Kajol Enforce Disappeared Journalist

The current Bangladeshi government recently made history. Young students were protesting for a reform in the quota system in government jobs and in a peaceful and civil protest the government unleashed its forces on the innocent students. First with the help of Chhatra league, the student body of the ruling party, they attacked the students. Later, when the youth’s resistance increased they decided to open fire, killing close to 200 people, the majority of the students of universities, colleges and even schools, all unarmed. In the history of independent Bangladesh this has never happened before. The horror is beyond descriptions. The videos are so horrific it will traumatize anyone with a heart.

With the death of the first student, which Bangladesh saw through the videos circulating in the social medias, we saw Abu Sayed spreading his arm standing still when the police barraged him with bullets. This caused an uprising and influenced even more students to join in protest. Instead of reflecting on the murder of a student, the government went on a frenzy and the bloodshed soon reached a point where the country took the image of a civil war.

Even with the death tolls rising, unable to control the movement the government shut down the entire country’s internet, which by itself is a mass violation of human rights. Then it issued a curfew which is still ongoing today. The government then decided to accept the student’s original demand but it is already too late. Innocent children have been killed.

This cannot go unanswered.

In the last couple of days, armed forces of the government have been raiding multiple areas in the country, arresting students left and right. What is worse is they had agreed to not persecute the protestors when accepting their demands. Now they are openly breaking their promise. Reports have also come of some disappearances after being picked up by men in civil clothes. I, myself a victim of enforced disappearance am horrified of the future of these students. The horror of being forcibly disappeared and tortured by an organized force while the world doesn’t know whether you exist or not would break any person and their family. I worry about my family constantly who are back in Bangladesh, especially for my son who is of the same age of these protesting students and my young daughter who cannot go to school. Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured and thousands more in jail.

This must be put to a stop urgently. Ensuring the safety and security of ordinary citizens and students is now the responsibility of the international community.

I would like to thank Rupa Huq for the opportunity to speak today. I would also like to thank Stephen Kinnock among others who had talked about me here in UK while I was disappeared and in jail.

UPDATE: A day after this article was published, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India. An interim government with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as leader has been established and Shafiqul Islam Kajol is part of that government.

Shafiqul Islam Kajol is a Bangladeshi photojournalist who in 2020, Bangladesh’s security forces abducted and held in an underground cell for nearly two months after he had written about the alleged involvement of a prominent politician in a sex-trafficking ring. More on his story can be seen here.