The Independent Researchers Alliance, Bangladesh on Wednesday, issued a statement questioning the legitimacy of the government, which has been in power for the past 15 years, and conducted a “massacre” in the name of quelling a student-led protest.

The statement was prompted by the observed brutal crackdown on recent quota protests initiated by university students and recent graduates.

The Alliance noted that since July 16, they have witnessed the Awami League-led government’s violent response to “a peaceful protest that initially began with students and later garnered support from various groups and classes of people.”

The alliance stated that the government’s crackdown involved the deployment of various repressive state apparatuses, including the Bangladesh Chhatra League, police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guards (BGB), and military personnel.

These forces have been documented assaulting, beating, and shooting protesters. This violent response has resulted in at least 250 confirmed deaths, according to national and international media reports, with concerns that the actual toll could reach into the thousands.

“The fear is genuine, as most national media failed to portray the atrocities committed by the government amidst nationwide internet blackout and heavy censorship,” said the statement.

The statement also highlighted that personal testimonies and social media documentation, including video and photographic evidence, reveal that the state-led violence constitutes one of the largest massacres ever perpetrated by a government within its own capital city.

They said the emotional impact is profound when “viewing videos of people being deliberately shot at close range or hearing witnesses describe the trauma of finding friends with fatal injuries.”

In addition to this brutality, the statement reads, the government has deployed law enforcement and military forces “to abduct individuals and conduct block raids on homes during the night.”

The alliance's statement noted that throughout this “ongoing state-led brutality, the Bangladeshi government and its agencies have persistently denied their criminal actions.”

This includes rejecting recorded evidence of beatings, shootings, and killings in initial police reports (FIRs), dismissing such evidence in government press briefings by parliamentary members, and contradicting it through statements made by pro-government politicians and social or cultural elites in the media and on social platforms, they pointed out.

“However, the public outcry and the traumatic experience of the close ones of the dead and the tortured surely tell a different story,” the statement mentioned.

“As independent researchers, our observations and personal experiences reflect the account of the oppressed people of Bangladesh. We hereby condemn this government and accuse them of massacre,” said the Independent Researcher Alliance.

“We firmly believe that the recent event has proven that this government is NOT ‘by the people, of the people, for the people’ and to ensure a democratic and safe environment in the country, we demand that the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, would immediately step down from her designation along with her cabinet.”

“No ultimatum of any number of hours can equate the horror of the bloodshed this government has caused,” the statement asserted.

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The signatories of the statement:

Parvez Alam, cultural analyst

Debashish Chakrabarty, power politics and civil imagination researcher

Anupam Debashis Roy, social movements researcher

Haque Muhammad Ishfaq, computer scientist

Manjurul Mahmud Dhrubo, political communications researcher

Meem Arafat Manab, computer scientist and digital law researcher

Nafisa Raihana, biophysicist

Sohul Ahmed, genocide studies researcher

Sarwar Tusher, post-/de-colonial studies and state violence researcher

Mahi Shafiullah, machine learning researcher

Audity Nowshin, educational studies researcher

Tahniat Afsari, nanoscientist

Dr Asif Mahmood, computer scientist, image and video processing researcher

Syed Hasan Imtiaz, social epidemiologist

Sumi Anjuman, artistic researcher

Khandaker Toor Azad, development economics researcher

Shrobona Shafique Dipti, urban anthropologist

Shoeb Abdullah, digital rights researcher

Nisharggo Niloy, decolonial studies researcher

Farhadul Islam, computer scientist

Sadiqul Sakif, computer scientist

Aditi Sharif, social anthropologist

Joyanta Jyoti Mondal, machine learning researcher

Sabik Khair, life-science researcher

Rawhatur Rabbi, computer scientist

Arefin Mizan, public health researcher

Nafiz Imtiaz Rafin, data scientist

Apon Das, cultural anthropologist

Mohammad Yeasin Ali, system security researcher

Faysal Zaman, artistic researcher

Anika Tahsin Miami, computational social scientist

Fahim Bin Selim, theoretical physicist