Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday said freedom of speech and assembly in Bangladesh were under threat, with academics and students at public universities being arbitrarily punished over their alleged affiliations with former ruler Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party.

In a statement, it said punishing people for their beliefs or without ensuring due process would violate the rights to freedom of expression and association protected under international human rights law.

Such actions would also reproduce abusive attempts by previous administrations to control political opinion and expression at Bangladesh’s public universities.

“Bangladesh has a long history of political debate in its universities, and only autocrats should fear such discourse, not a government formed following student protests,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“Bangladesh needs to turn the page on the repression of the past, not repeat it whenever the ruling and opposition parties trade places.”

HRW said the sanctions — including dismissals, suspensions and teaching restrictions — were based on allegations of complicity in violence under Hasina’s government, other “subversive” activities in support of her party, or discrimination against students wearing Islamic clothing.

“Any acts of revenge against people who peacefully supported the previous government would show that freedoms of speech and assembly are not protected,” Ganguly said. “Universities should be places where people are free to express their views, not places where support is enforced for the government of the day.”

“Hundreds of students, allegedly Awami League members and supporters, are also being expelled, denying them their education rights,” the statement said.

HRW said it had interviewed more than a dozen affected teachers, examined university correspondence, and reviewed a televised discussion and a video posted on social media.

Interviews with teachers and students also confirmed cases of expulsions, cancellation of examination certificates and students being barred from campuses.

Citing media reports from August 2026, HRW said at least 404 academics at 22 universities who belonged to a pro-AL Telegram group had been placed under investigation.

“What is happening now is that the university authorities are targeting with false allegations the group of teachers who are aligned to the Awami League and did not support the 2024 student movement,” said a professor at a public university, who was not identified for security reasons.

“We are not allowed to go take classes, we cannot do research work, we cannot do anything.”

HRW noted that the Awami League was criminalised by an interim government in 2025 following Hasina’s fall. It said Bangladesh’s universities had long been run along partisan lines, with academics close to the party in power being employed and promoted while supporters of other political parties faced action.

From September 2024, newly appointed authorities at Dhaka University ordered 44 academics to stop working and restricted the teaching assignments of another 25, without a transparent or credible disciplinary investigation.

Six of the academics were subsequently formally “temporarily suspended” following an inquiry committee's findings, while similar investigations have now begun against another 14 teachers.

At Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) in Mymensingh, authorities dismissed, suspended or removed 12 academics and demoted or restricted the activities of another 34 after setting up an investigation commission. HRW said the process did not appear to comply with the university’s legally established disciplinary procedures.

At Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka, 12 academics were temporarily suspended and another 10 removed from academic activities following an inquiry process that teachers said they were not allowed to attend, in an apparent breach of the law governing academic discipline, HRW said.

Another 85 teachers were denied promotions.

In all, more than 20 public universities had been affected, HRW found.

HRW also mentioned Dhaka University's temporary suspension of 126 students after a fact-finding committee said it had found photographic, video or social media evidence that they had attacked peaceful protesters.

“Cases filed with the police allege that another 277 Awami League students were involved. The university authorities have taken no formal action against them, but students and teachers confirmed that they stay away from campus for fear of arrest. Many of those named deny any role in the violence, yet the university has not provided a forum for them to answer the allegations,” it said.

The statement highlighted the case of Dhaka University sociology professor Mashiur Rahman, who had been deputed as vice-chancellor of another university since 2017.

“He was told to stop all academic and administrative work on September 25, 2024. The allegations against him include claims that during the protests he ‘directly opposed the movement, calling it illegal, baseless and irrational,’ during a July 2024 television discussion, although a video of the broadcast, reviewed by Human Rights Watch, shows no such comment.”

Regarding the allegation that he was at the prime minister’s house on August 3 and “incited genocide”, HRW said: “This was a meeting set up by the University Grants Commission that all vice-chancellors had to attend, and he has told Human Rights Watch that no evidence has been provided to him showing that he made such a statement, which he denies.”

In BAU's case, HRW said the allegations against sanctioned teachers centred on their participation in a pro-AL march on August 4, 2024, the day before Hasina fled the country.

“A report by a Commission of Inquiry set up by the university refers to the march as a ‘terrorist’ procession.”

HRW said it had analysed a video of the march posted on Facebook by the Bangladesh Agricultural University Journalists’ Association on August 4, 2024, but found no visible direct confrontations.

“Professor Purba Islam from the Department of Pharmacology was suspended on August 4, 2025, for her ‘sloganising’ at the procession, alleging ‘support for the oppression, persecution and genocide committed by the fascist and autocrat Sheikh Hasina.’ No evidence of her shouting slogans is visible in the video.”

The statement also said Professor Yahia Khandoker, of BAU’s Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, was suspended on August 4, 2025, accused of maintaining “on the university campus, a clear position in favor of Sheikh Hasina’s mass killing”.

HRW said Khandoker had told it that he was with his family in Dhaka throughout the protest period, not at the university. The High Court has stayed his suspension, though the Attorney General’s Office is appealing.

HRW also mentioned that three academics, two of whom are in prison, had been convicted by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity, while another is awaiting trial.