SUMMARY
Bangladesh gained its independence in 1971, when the country seceded from Pakistan. Before the secession, Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan after being grouped with present-day Pakistan during the Partition of British India in 1947. The partition was made along religious lines into one predominantly Islamic country (present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh) and one predominantly Hindu country (present-day India). After the secession from Pakistan, a democratic rule was established in Bangladesh; however, it was short-lived as it was quickly ousted by military rule in 1975. The democratic rule was reinstated in 1990, but Bangladesh’s political landscape has since been dominated by high levels of intolerance, electoral violence, and confrontational behavior. Especially between the two major political parties: Awami League and BNP, as well as its supporters. Bangladeshi elections often turn into bloody events, which at times became sufficiently high to require army intervention. The violence has often continued post-election as the losing parties denounce election results. While electoral and political violence has become a recurring phenomenon, the country has also undergone intrastate conflict with Maoist groups, and has also seen a recent upsurge in radical Islamist militant groups.
Since 1989, Bangladesh has experienced the intrastate, non-state and one-sided categories of organized violence, as defined by UCDP.
Sporadic Violence
Levels of organized violence in Bangladesh oscillated between 1989 and 2023. The country has witnessed five main peaks in organized violence. The first peak in 1992 is by far of the greatest magnitude in terms of fatalities. The peak was mainly a result of one-sided violence in the context of the intrastate armed conflict between the PCJSS and the Government of Bangladesh. The PCJSS was a tribal rebel group that fought the government since 1975, mainly over autonomy for the tribal groups residing in the so-called Chittagong Hill Tracts area in the south-eastern part of the country. These groups are ethnically different from the Bengalis that make up the majority of the total population of Bangladesh. The PCJSS also demanded restriction on the influx of Bengali settlers as the process of external settlement into the Chittagong Hill Tracts, among other factors, precipitated the political and economic marginalization of the tribal people. To reverse this trend, the PCJSS resorted to one-sided violence mainly against Bengali settlers to scare off and displace them from the area. In fighting against the PCJSS, the government likewise perpetuated violence against civilians from the tribal groups.
After a period of relative calm, violence escalated in 2000. This peak was mainly attributed to a non-state conflict between BNLF and NLFT. The BNLF represented the Reang/Bru tribe in the Indian state of Mizoram, while NLFT mainly represented the tribal community in the Indian state of Tripura. Although both rebel groups were primarily active in India’s northeastern states, they maintained bases in the Chittagong division where the fighting occurred. The conflict was preceded by a rift between the two groups, likely caused by BNLF’s alleged pro-India stance and collusion with Indian security forces and the group’s killing of Christians. NLFT, on its part, was engaged in a conflict with the Government of India and was an outspoken Christian group.
In 2006, the country again faced an escalation of violence, this time rooted in the armed conflict between PBCP-J and the government of Bangladesh. The PBCP-J emerged as a splinter group of the PBCP as early as 2004, resembling its predecessor in its aim to achieve a socialist revolution in Bangladesh. Though the PBCP-J continued to struggle nominally for a Communist revolution, the group came to resemble a mafia organization. The conflict activity escalated in 2006, mainly concentrated in the Khulna division.
2013 saw yet another escalation of organized violence, albeit relatively small. Although fatalities were relatively low in 2013, violent incidents were recorded in 7 out of 8 administrative divisions in Bangladesh, namely Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Ragpur, and Sylhet. The peak was driven by clashes between supporters of Awami League and supporters of Jammat-e-Islami. The violent clashes between the two groups can be traced to Bangladesh’s struggle for independence. The Awami League was perceived as a pro-independence party, and many of its supporters fought against the Pakistani military presence during the war of independence. On the other hand, the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party officially opposed the secession of Bangladesh, and many of its members supported the Pakistani military forces. Although the two groups had clashed in previous years, 2013 was the most violent episode. The war crimes tribunal established by the Government of Bangladesh prosecuted Jamaat leaders for the crimes committed during the war of independence.
The latest peak in fatalities from organized violence was registered in 2024, the deadliest year recorded in Bangladesh since 1989. The escalation was driven by a sharp increase in both non-state and one-sided violence. The surge in fatalities was primarily linked to nationwide protests in July and August, which culminated in the ousting of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. These events are represented through two dyads: Opponents of Hasina – Supporters of Awami League and Government of Bangladesh – Civilians. While various estimates place the overall death toll from the unrest significantly higher, many of these events fall outside the scope of UCDP. Notably, much of the violence involving state forces occurred during violent protests and is therefore not included in UCDP data.
The deadliest conflict in Bangladesh during this peak in 2024, by a significant margin, was the non-state conflict between Opponents of Hasina and Supporters of Awami League, which accounted for 353 fatalities. This marks the highest fatality count recorded for any dyad in Bangladesh in a single calendar year in UCDP data since 1989. The violence was largely driven by Supporters of Awami League, often incited by party officials, attacking anti-government protestors. By early August, as the government lost control over large parts of the country, Opponents of Hasina escalated retaliatory killings of Awami League supporters.
Fatalities from one-sided violence in Bangladesh more than doubled in 2024, continuing a pattern of gradual increase observed in recent years. Most incidents involved the Myanmar-based rebel group ARSA killing civilians in southeastern Bangladesh, mainly in refugee camps. The Government of Bangladesh also killed civilians during the July and August protests. However, the overall scale of violence during this period, along with the complexity of determining whether protesters were acting violently or peacefully and reports of state forces concealing bodies, complicates efforts to accurately assess the full extent of one-sided violence perpetrated by the Government of Bangladesh.
Pre-1989 Conflicts
UCDP has recorded activity in one intrastate conflict involving Bangladesh in 1946-1988: the initiation of the intrastate conflict over the Chittagong Hill Tracts in 1975.
In the pre-1989 period, Bangladesh also engaged in its war of independence from Pakistan, but the conflict that led to Bangladesh’s independence is seen as an intrastate conflict within Pakistan. As previously mentioned, present-day Bangladesh was grouped with Pakistan and was formerly referred to as East Pakistan. The area of East Pakistan, however, suffered marginalization and economic neglect from the main Pakistani entity located approximately 1600 kilometers to the west. Linguistic issues also divided the two parts of Pakistan. Together, these issues brought on demands of autonomy during the 1960s and an upswing of popularity for the Awami League. After the Awami League had made a grand performance in parliamentary elections in 1970, the central government in West Pakistan blocked the party from assuming office and instead launched a military operation against East Pakistan. This led to an intrastate conflict between the government of Pakistan and the Mukti Bahini (Liberation Force) over East Pakistan’s territory in 1971. The Mukti Bahini was formed by scattered elements of resistance fighters and Bangladeshis who deserted the Pakistani army, brought together under one organization on behalf of the Awami League’s leader, Mujibur Rahman. With the intervention of India in late 1971, the nine-month conflict ended in a military victory for the Bangladeshi nationalists and India. Bangladesh thus became independent in December of 1971.
