“There are already a dozen cases piling up against me,” she said. “I’m a journalist. One murder case is enough to frame me.”

Rupa, a former chief correspondent at privately owned broadcaster Ekattor TV, now faces nine murder cases. Her husband, Shakil Ahmed, the channel’s former head of news, is named in eight.  

A year ago, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of Bangladesh’s interim government after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following weeks of student-led protests, during which two journalists were killed.

Yunus promised media reform and repealed the Cyber Security Act, a law used to target journalists under Hasina. But in a November 2024 interview with newspaper The Daily Star, Yunus said that murder accusations against journalists were being made hastily. He said the government had since halted such actions and that a committee had been formed to review the cases.

Still, nearly a year later, Rupa, Ahmed, Shyamal Dutta and Mozammel Haque Babu, arrested on accusations of instigating murders in separate cases, remain behind bars. The repeated use of such charges against journalists who are widely seen as sympathetic to the former regime appear to be politically motivated censorship.

In addition to such legal charges, CPJ has documented physical attacks against journalists, threats from political activists, and exile. At least 25 journalists are under investigation for genocide by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal – a charge that has been used to target figures linked to the former Hasina government. 

“Keeping four journalists behind bars without credible evidence a year on undermines the interim government’s stated commitment to protect press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “Real reform means breaking from the past, not replicating its abuses. All political parties must respect journalists’ right to report as the country is set for polls in coming months.”

A CPJ review of legal documents and reports found that journalists are often added to First Information Reports (FIRs) – documents that open an investigation – long after they are filed. In May, UN experts raised concern that over 140 journalists had been charged with murder following last year’s protests.

Shyamal Dutta’s daughter, Shashi, told CPJ the family has lost track of how many cases he now faces. They are aware of at least six murder cases in which he is named, while Babu’s family is aware of 10. Rupa and Ahmed’s family told CPJ that they haven’t received FIRs for five cases in which one or the other journalist has been named, which means that neither can apply for bail.

Shafiqul Alam, Yunus’s press secretary, and police spokesperson Enamul Haque Sagor did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. 

Violence and threats

In 2025, reporters across Bangladesh have faced violence and harassment while covering political events, with CPJ documenting at least 10 such incidents, most of which were carried out by members or affiliates of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its student wing, Chhatra Dal. In several instances, journalists sustained serious injuries or were prevented from reporting after footage was deleted or phones seized, including Bahar Raihan, Abdullah Al Mahmud, and Rocky Hossain.

Responding to the allegations, Mahdi Amin, adviser to Acting BNP Chair Tarique Rahman, told CPJ that while isolated misconduct may occur in a party of BNP’s size, the party does not protect wrongdoers. 

Others have faced threats from supporters of different political parties and the student groups that led the protests against Hasina. Reporters covering opposition groups like Jamaat-e-Islami or its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, have come under particular pressure. On June 9, Hasanat Kamal, editor of EyeNews.news, told CPJ he’d fled to the United Kingdom after being falsely accused by Islami Chhatra Shibir of participating in a violent student protest. Anwar Hossain, a journalist for the local daily Dabanol, told CPJ he’d been threatened by Jamaat supporters after publishing negative reports about a local party leader. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to Abdus Sattar Sumon, a spokesperson for Jamaat-e-Islami, but received no response.

Since Hasina’s ouster, student protesters from the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement (ADSM) have increasinglytargeted journalists they accuse of supporting the former regime, which in one case led to the firing of five journalists. Student-led mobs have also besieged outlets like Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to ADSM leader Rifat Rashid but received no response.

On July 14, exiled investigative journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan, who fled Bangladesh after exposing alleged high-level corruption under Hasina and receiving threats from Awami League officials, posted on X about the repression of the media: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Representative.

Bangladesh has been in a state of crisis since August 5 when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted following a month-long nationwide student protest that resulted in the deaths of hundreds. Since then, there have been numerous reports of attacks on minority Hindus in various parts of the country. This particular video has gone viral in this context.

On August 8, an interim government was formed in Bangladesh with 84-year-old Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus sworn in as its chief advisor. The newly formed government assured on August 11 that they were working to stop incidents of attacks on minorities

X user Mr. Nationalist (@MrNationalistJJ) shared the above-mentioned video on August 9 with the following caption: “#AHorrorStory
This is Jyotika Basu-Chatterjee from Bangladesh. A woman who ran a humanitarian organization. She worked tirelessly on education and health for Muslims with Hindu funds. She helped all the women nearby, be it small or big; whenever anyone needed help….” The tweet has received over 20 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 10,000 times. (Archive)

#AHorrorStory
This is Jyotika Basu-Chatterjee from Bangladesh. A woman who ran a humanitarian organization. She worked tirelessly on education and health for Muslims with Hindu funds. She helped all the women nearby, be it small or big; whenever anyone needed help….
1/3 pic.twitter.com/Bz3r73tAcL

— Mr. Nationalist (@MrNationalistJJ) August 9, 2024

The video was also tweeted by Right-wing influencer Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala), who shares communal propaganda on a regular basis. In his tweet, he called it a “heart wrenching story”. He also claimed that the lady in the clip, Jyotika Basu Chatterjee, was stripped naked, raped and burnt alive. (Archive)

Heart wrenching story

She is Jyotika Basu Chatterjee from #Bangladesh. She ran a humanitarian organization and worked tirelessly on education & health for Musl!ms with funds from Hindus. She helped all the women nearby, in all way possible ; whenever anyone needed help they… pic.twitter.com/Hda5VofQsf

— Amitabh Chaudhary (@MithilaWaala) August 9, 2024

Premium subscribed X user Faraz Pervaiz (@FarazPervaiz3) also shared that viral video on August 9 with the same claim as above. The tweet has received over 43,000 views and has been retweeted 1,000 times. (Archive)

A #Hindu women Jyotika Basu Chatterjee from #Bangladesh.

A woman who ran a humanitarian organization. She worked tirelessly on education and health for Muslims with Hindu funds.#BangladeshiHindus #AllEyesonBangladesh #AllEyesonBangladeshHindus pic.twitter.com/v5gtPZqwsK

— Faraz Pervaiz (@FarazPervaiz3) August 9, 2024

Several other users on X have shared the viral video with the same claim. Below are a few instances.

Fact Check

We noticed that Bangladeshi fact-checker Shohanur Rahman (@Sohan_RSB) had quote-tweeted @MrNationalistJJ’s tweet and wrote that the name of the woman in the video was Sagarika Akhter who was a Chhatra League leader from Eden Mohila College. Rahman mentioned that the video was from July 17. He also attached a screenshot of a Facebook post from July 17 that had posted the now-viral video.

Founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1948, Chhatra League or the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) is the student wing of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League, which was in power till her ouster on August 5.

She is Sagarika Akhter, a Muslim and a female Chhatra League leader from Eden Women’s College. This video and incident is from July 17.

She is not Jyotika Basu, as mentioned in your fabricated story.

She was punished for standing against students and torturing them using… https://t.co/s6WJI3ll1x pic.twitter.com/k3ErhAC4hM

— Shohanur Rahman (@Sohan_RSB) August 9, 2024

Taking a cue from the above, we ran a relevant keyword search in Bengali on Facebook and came across several posts from July 17 that had carried the viral video. In many of these posts, the woman was identified as a Chhatra League leader from Eden Mohila (Women’s) College. Below are a few instances:

As per a July 17 report by Bangla Tribune, when students from Eden College started joining the anti-government protests, Chhatra League leaders scolded them in the college and also allegedly physically assaulted them. This angered the students who then started targeting Chhatra League leaders and throwing them out of the college premises. The report also mentioned that similar incidents had also taken place in other education institutions where students had forced BCL leaders out of the college halls.

We also did a Google search with the name Jyotika Basu Chatterjee in English and Bengali to check if there was any report on an assault on anyone by that name. We did not find any.

Therefore, from the above findings, it is clear that neither is the woman in the viral video a Hindu nor is the incident related to alleged attacks on minorities in Bangladesh.

Recently, Alt News debunked a similar false claim where a video of BCL leaders being heckled at the Begum Badrunnessa Women’s College in Dhaka was peddled as Hindu women being attacked.

The post Video of Chhatra League leader being ‘punished’ at Eden College in Dhaka falsely viral as attack on Hindus appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

Bangladesh was plunged into a crisis with erstwhile Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ousted on August 5 after a month-long nationwide student protest which saw the deaths of hundreds. Incidents of attacks on minority Hindus have been reported from several parts of the country since August 5. This particular video, too, is viral in that context.

Premium subscribed X user Salwan Momika (@Salwan_Momika1) shared the above-mentioned clip on August 7 with the following caption: “Save the #Hindus in #Bangladesh. They are being subjected to genocide by Muslims and their women are being taken captive and sold, as happened to us in Iraq.” The tweet has received more than 10.4 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 11,000 times. (Archive)

Save the #Hindus in #Bangladesh.

They are being subjected to genocide by Muslims and their women are being taken captive and sold, as happened to us in Iraq. pic.twitter.com/89WgXguQJg

— Salwan Momika (@Salwan_Momika1) August 7, 2024

Another premium subscribed X user, Niyak Ghorbani (نیاک) (@GhorbaniiNiyak), also shared the same video with a caption which claimed that the concerned clip depicted Muslims in Bangladesh committing violence against minorities. The tweet has received over 10.2 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 7,900 times. (Archive)

Remember the Yazidi women who were sold as slaves by ISIS?
Now in Bangladesh, Muslims who have come to power are doing the same thing!

Religion of peace! pic.twitter.com/7Fi6Xfu522

— Niyak Ghorbani (نیاک) (@GhorbaniiNiyak) August 7, 2024

Fact Check

We broke down the video into several key frames and ran a reverse image search on a few of them. This led us to a Facebook post from July 17 which contained the same video. The caption in Bengali says, “Badrunnessa college leaders are being held hostage by ordinary students.”

Taking a cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search in Bengali and came across a news report from Jago News 24 which carried a screengrab from the viral video. The headline in Bengali said, “Students tied up Chhatra League workers, made them do squats holding ears.”

As per the report, the Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders enjoyed exclusive clout over students at the Begum Badrunnessa Women’s College in Dhaka. Everyone felt they had to be subservient to them. As a protest against this, some agitating students tied up a few of them and made some others do squats holding their ears. The report also mentioned that after some time the college teachers arrived and helped the Chhatra League members leave.

The Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) is the student wing of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League which was in power for 15 years in Bangladesh till Hasina’s resignation on August 5, 2024. The above incident took place on July 17, at a time when the protests in the country began to get violent.

Another report by Shotoban mentioned that the incident was connected to a boycott call against Chhatra League workers in all educational institutions.

We also found this viral video posted on Dhaka Age’s YouTube channel on July 17 with the same context as mentioned in the above news report. The title of the video said: “Students tied up Badrunnesa College Chhatra League leaders”. At the 19-second mark of the video, one can also see that the same women who were being tied up were made to hold their ears.

Hence, it can be concluded that while the viral video is from Bangladesh and is related to the protests, it is from July 2024 and does not show violence against minorities. There was no communal angle to the incident. The clip is being shared with a misleading claim.

The post Chhatra League leaders heckled in Dhaka college: Video viral with misleading communal claims appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Oishani Bhattacharya.

At around 2:30 p.m. on November 9, around 20 men, allegedly members of the ruling Awami League party’s student wing Chhatra League, beat Alim, a reporter for the online news portal Rajshahi Post, and Rony, a correspondent for the online newspaper Bangladesh Journal, on the Rajshahi College campus in western Bangladesh, according to privately owned news website New Age, the local press freedom group Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, and Alim, who spoke with CPJ.

“Bangladeshi authorities and the Rajshahi College administration must immediately hold accountable those who attacked student journalists Abdul Alim and Abu Sayed Rony while reporting on the university campus,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, from Washington, D.C. “The government must take action against the deeply disturbing trend of the Chhatra League’s violence against student journalists on their campuses.”

The journalists were filming an argument between the university vice-principal along with professors and the men, who were led by undergraduate mathematics student Masud Rana, a Chhatra League member who was not permitted to take an examination after repeatedly missing class, according to those sources.

The men recognized Rony, an undergraduate mathematics student, as a journalist, but not Alim, an undergraduate history student, Alim told CPJ.

The men then beat and slapped the journalists, grabbed their collars, and repeatedly pushed them into a wall before they fell unconscious and woke up in the teachers’ lounge. The journalists were taken to the hospital, where Alim was treated for a blood clot in his back and significant bruising throughout his body, and Rony for a severe head inquiry, Alim said.

Following the attack, the journalists learned the perpetrators took their phones, which were returned to them broken, Alim said. Rony did not immediately respond to CPJ’s messages.

The Chhatra League leadership on campus subsequently suspended eight members for their alleged involvement in the attack. University officials have also appointed a committee to investigate the incident, Alim said.

Rony filed a complaint about the attack at the Boalia Police Station, but it was unclear whether a formal investigation had been opened, Alim said, adding that no suspects had been apprehended by the university or police as of November 13.

Rana and the officer-in-charge of the Boalia Police Station did not immediately respond to CPJ’s messages.

On September 24, around 15 to 20 alleged members of the Chhatra League beat student journalist Mosharrof Shah on the University of Chittagong campus.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

At around 11:30 a.m. on September 24, around 15 to 20 men severely beat Shah, a correspondent for the privately owned daily newspaper Prothom Alo, on the University of Chittagong campus in southeast Bangladesh, according to a statement by Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media and the journalist.

In the days prior, Shah, a fourth-year undergraduate in communication and journalism, published a series of reports for Prothom Alo on a factional clash within the university chapter of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League party. Shah’s attackers repeatedly warned him not to write about the Bangladesh Chhatra League, which subsequently dissolved its University of Chittagong chapter escalating tensions on campus.

“The severe beating of Bangladeshi student journalist Mosharrof Shah, which appears to have been carried out by members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, reflects a worryingly familiar pattern of violence. Police must swiftly hold the perpetrators of this attack to account and end the inaction on the Chhatra League’s attacks on the press,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Government and University of Chittagong authorities must ensure that Shah may safely return to campus and continue his reporting without fear of reprisal.”

CPJ has documented numerous unprosecuted attacks on journalists by those associated with the Chhatra League. Shah said he identified six of his attackers in his September 28 statement to the university but no one had been arrested or faced action by the university, leading him to fear returning to campus.

Shah said he was walking towards the vice-chancellor’s office for an interview on the clash when the men approached him from behind and demanded his mobile phone, which he refused to hand over. He did not answer when the men asked if he had written about the Chhatra League.

The perpetrators then punched the journalist in the forehead and face and pushed him to the ground, where they kicked his chest and hit him with sticks and cricket stumps while warning him to stop reporting on the Chhatra League, he said. The attack lasted for around 25 minutes, ending when a police intelligence officer stationed on campus intervened.

Shah told CPJ he was hospitalized and received five stitches to his forehead and painkillers for torn cartilage in his left ear, internal injuries, and severe bruising. He was discharged on October 1.

A university proctor informed Shah that the administration filed a complaint on September 26 at the Hathazari Police Station against unnamed people regarding the incident and three other attacks by the Chhatra League on campus but did not provide a copy upon request, the journalist told CPJ.

Chittagong Police Superintendent S.M. Shafiullah told CPJ that an investigation was underway, and a police officer had spoken with Shah about the incident. However, Shah said that police had not contacted him as of October 6.

In a September 28 statement to a university-appointed investigative committee, which CPJ reviewed, Shah claimed the perpetrators were followers of Rejaul Haque Rubel, a former University of Chittagong student and president of its Chhatra League chapter, and that an attacker spoke with Rubel by phone during the beating. In the statement, Shah named six men as his attackers and stated that he would be able to identify further suspects upon reviewing security footage. Shah said the university had not provided this as of October 6.

Rubel told CPJ by phone that he denied those allegations, which he called a “conspiracy.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.