DHAKA: A Bangladeshi student leader was beaten to death at his university campus in an apparent reprisal for attacks on protesters during the uprising that ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina last month.

Shamim Ahmed was enrolled at Jahangirnagar University in the capital Dhaka, and was a top member of the student wing of Hasina’s Awami League party, police officer Abu Bakkar said.

Bakkar said Ahmed was beaten by unknown assailants on Wednesday night for leading an attack on student demonstrators at the campus in mid-July, when protests demanding Hasina’s removal from office were gaining momentum.

“We took him to the Gonoshasthaya Hospital, where he later died,” the officer added.

Staff at the hospital confirmed that Ahmed had died after being brought in with multiple injuries. Ahmed is at least the second leader of the Awami League’s student wing to be killed this month.

Fellow leader Abdullah Al Masud died hours after being beaten by a mob in the northern city of Rajshahi on Sept 8, according to local media reports.

He had also been accused of marshalling counter-demonstrations against the student-led uprising against Hasina, who fled the country in early August moments before protesters stormed her Dhaka palace.

Hasina’s government was accused of widespread abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of political rivals. More than 450 people were killed in the weeks of violence leading up to the autocratic leader’s toppling.

Since her departure for exile in neighbouring India, cabinet ministers and other senior members of Hasina’s party have been arrested, and her government’s appointees have been purged from courts and the central bank.

At least 25 journalists seen as close to Hasina’s regime have also been taken into custody since her ouster and replacement with an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammed Yunus.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2024