Deadly in Disguise: The Hidden Lethality of Pellet Guns During the 2024 Uprising

This project investigates the use of pellet guns as a tool of state violence during the 2024 Monsoon Uprising in Bangladesh. As part of the research output, Sapran produced a detailed report documenting the deployment, consequences, and patterns of pellet-gun injuries, alongside a forthcoming journal article for the United Against Torture journal by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). The research highlights the severe and lasting harm caused to civilians, including permanent disabilities, organ damage, blindness, and death, demonstrating how these weapons were systematically used to suppress dissent while minimizing international scrutiny. On the advocacy side, the project organized two major events. The first was a panel discussion on March 5, 2025, at Bishwo Shahitto Kendro in Dhaka, which featured survivors of pellet-gun attacks, human rights experts, journalists, and policymakers. Speakers, including Shahidul Alam, UN Resident Coordinator Huma Khan, and Barrister Sara Hossain, emphasized the urgent need for a total ban on pellet guns and called for structural reforms in law enforcement and crowd-control practices. The second advocacy event took place on December 13, 2025, at Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur, on Human Rights Day. This seminar focused on Sapran’s findings at the university, highlighting the case of Abu Sayeed, a student and first martyr of the uprising, and explored the broader culture of impunity surrounding the use of pellet guns. Both events amplified survivor narratives, fostered public awareness, and reinforced calls for legal and policy reform to prevent future harm.

Beyond the Barbed Wire: Violence, Push-ins, and Accountability at the Bangladesh-India Border

This project explored the ongoing humanitarian crisis along the Bangladesh–India border, focusing on patterns of violence, forced push-ins, and deep-seated impunity. As part of its research output, Sapran penned a position paper titled, “Bare Lives Across the Border: Collective Suffering and Culture of Impunity in the Bangladesh–India Frontier.” The paper argued that the border operates as a necropolitical regime, where certain lives are rendered disposable through practices such as extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and unlawful expulsions. Moving beyond a security-centric lens, it highlighted how these violations are structurally embedded and sustained by a culture of impunity, while emphasizing the need for a human dignity-centered approach grounded in the lived realities of border communities. It further identifies critical legal and diplomatic gaps and advances concrete recommendations for rights-based policy reform and cross-border accountability. Complementing this research, Sapran conducted its advocacy work by organizing a panel discussion titled, “Beyond the Barbed Wire: Understanding Violence, Push-ins, and Accountability at the Bangladesh–India Border,” held on 8 January, 2026 in Dhaka’s Bishwa Sahitto Kendra. Drawing on both historical and recent developments, including the enduring significance of the killing of Felani Khatun and the sharp rise in unlawful push-ins, the discussion brought together researchers, activists, and policy thinkers to examine the structural drivers of border violence. The discussion highlighted the humanitarian consequences of current border practices, including trauma, displacement, and loss of dignity, while critically engaging with the limitations of existing accountability mechanisms. By connecting research, memory, and policy dialogue, this project emphasized that border violence is not just an isolated political issue but also an urgent human rights crisis. Through this project Sapran calls for immediate, coordinated action that places human dignity, legal accountability, and protection at the center of border governance.

Enforced Disappearance in Bangladesh: Truth, Memory, and Accountability