Violence of Bangladesh Chhatra League

The Bangladesh Chhatra League is a students' political organisation in Bangladesh, which is the student wing of the Awami League. The organization has been repeatedly accused of using torture, extortion, violence, forced prostitution and killings to instill fear. The organization is banned since October 2024 after the July Revolution.

More than 33 people were killed and 1,500 got seriously injured from attacks by BSL between 2009 and 2014. Number of fatalities rose to 129 between 2014 and 2018, while 31 people were killed in 2018 alone. Following the attacks on student protesters in 2018, a petition was started by general people of Bangladesh to "Enlist Bangladesh Chhatra League (BSL) as a Terrorist Organization" at Change.org. In 2019, prominent English-language daily of Bangladesh, Dhaka Tribune labelled the organization as "the brand of shame". On 26 May 2022, after a series of attacks on dissident student groups, eight left-wing student organizations termed Bangladesh Chhatra League a 'terrorist organization'.

On 15 July, during the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement, led under the banner of Students Against Discrimination and attended by students from various universities, colleges, and schools across Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Chhatra League along with Bangladesh Jubo League, Bangladesh Awami Swechasebak League and the law enforcement agencies conducted a series of attacks on the participants. These attacks resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 students and injured over 15,000. Additionally, wounded students seeking treatment at Dhaka Medical College were also attacked by activists of this organisation. The violence was widely referred to as the 'July massacre'.