Oct 31st 2019DHAKAEARLY IN OCTOBER Abrar Fahad, a student at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) was beaten to death in his dormitory. Police have detained 21 people in connection with the murder, many of them members of the Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League party. He appears to have offended them by making critical comments on Facebook about a water-sharing deal the government recently struck with India.The death of Mr Fahad, who was 21, has prompted protests at the university and a public outcry across the country. Yet such killings are quite common in Bangladesh, where violent party politics is mirrored—and often amplified—on university campuses. “This is part of the university culture,” says Mubashar Hasan of the University of Oslo. “Dormitory rooms are turned into torture rooms to quell opposition.”Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address