Violence broke out between two factions outside the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) headquarters in Dhaka on Wednesday during protests over the inclusion of graffiti featuring the term "indigenous" in school textbooks.
Several individuals were injured in the altercations.
The protests began when a group named "Students for Sovereignty" gathered in front of the NCTB building, demanding the removal of the "indigenous" graffiti and the punishment of those involved in what they termed as anti-uprising propaganda following the July protests.
In contrast, a faction under the banner "Aggrieved Indigenous Students and Citizens" arrived later, advocating for the reinstatement of the graffiti.
Tensions escalated around 11:45am on Wednesday (15 January) when the latter group arrived at the scene, prompting a physical confrontation.
Police intervened to separate the factions, who continued to hurl slogans at each other from opposite sides.
By early afternoon, a scuffle erupted, with unidentified individuals attacking members of the "Aggrieved Indigenous Students and Citizens" group, injuring several, including a woman.
Both sides accused each other of initiating the violence, with the police stepping in to disperse the crowd using batons.
The protests stemmed from the removal of graffiti depicting the word "indigenous" on the back cover of the ninth and tenth-grade Bengali grammar and composition textbooks.
The removal followed demands from "Students for Sovereignty", who saw the original graffiti as controversial, prompting the government to replace it with an alternative design in the PDF version of the textbooks.
