On the morning of September 24, Shah, a correspondent for the privately owned daily newspaper Prothom Alo, was attacked by a group of individuals associated with the BCL at the University of Chittagong. Shah had previously published reports on factional clashes within the university’s BCL unit, the student wing of the ruling Awami League.

The student journalist was ambushed by a group of between 15 to 20 men, who refused to be interviewed on the clash. The assailants demanded Shah’s mobile phone, punched him, and beat him with sticks and cricket stumps while warning him to cease his reporting on the BCL. The journalist suffered severe head injuries and received first aid at the scene before he was taken to a medical centre.

Shah identified six of his attackers in a statement to the university but action has yet to be taken against them, leaving him afraid to return to campus. Although the university filed a complaint regarding the incident and other attacks by the BCL on campus, police have not contacted Shah for their investigation.

In August, the IFJ recorded several unprosecuted assaults on journalists involving individuals connected to the BCL. In the three days prior to Shah’s attack, clashes involving BCL activists occurred at least eight times at the University of Chittagong.

IFJ monitoring has documented a recent increase in press freedom violations and attacks on journalists and media workers in Bangladesh, including legal threats, police aggression, online harassment, physical attacks during reporting, and intimidation of journalists’ families.

The IFJ said:“The IFJ condemns the violent assault and harassment of Mosharrof Shah, a student journalist simply doing his job in the field, and calls for a swift and thorough investigation. The Bangladeshi government and local authorities must do more to combat the current disturbing rise of media rights violations in Bangladesh to ensure press freedom is upheld.”