Anyone linked to Awami League ‘no longer safe in Bangladesh’

The Awami League in Bangladesh on Wednesday, May 20, expressed major concerns over the targeted attacks on its leaders, activists, as well as their families that have continued unabated in 2026.

The party warned that the international community’s silence on the matter might push Bangladesh further into brutality and prolonged political violence.

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Recently, 55-year-old Syada Begum died in Ukhiya upazila of Cox’s Bazar district when she was trying to protect her son during the alleged attack by workers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its student wing, Chhatra Dal.

Condemning the incident, the Awami League has termed it a “horrifying tragedy” and added that it was not an isolated incident but a broader pattern of violence across the country.

“A mother, who rushed forward to protect her son from a mob of BNP and Chhatra Dal activists, ended up dead. Why? In the unyielding landscape of modern Bangladesh, the answer is as simple as it is terrifying: her thirty-two-year-old son, SM Imran, had committed the unpardonable ‘crime’ of being linked to a political slogan, ‘Joy Bangla’,” IANS quoted the party as saying.

It added that the ongoing situation in Bangladesh indicates that anyone associated with the party was no longer safe, even if they have committed no proven wrongdoings.

It further highlighted that supporters of the BNP-led government have often justified the violence and called it as “a natural reaction to the past government”.

“While Bangladesh has always had strong political rivalries, the daily hunting of low-level workers and their innocent families at this scale is completely new,” it added.