The Murder of Abrar Fahad

Abrar Fahad and the night of the killing

Abrar Fahad was a second-year student in electrical and electronic engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, commonly known as BUET. On the evening of October 6, 2019, he was taken from his room in Sher-e-Bangla Hall. Police and later court reporting described a prolonged assault inside the dormitory. His body was found in the hall in the early hours of October 7.

Contemporary police reporting said investigators believed Abrar had been targeted after fellow students suspected him of an affiliation with Islami Chhatra Shibir. The High Court's full 2025 judgment later addressed that allegation directly and stressed that a suspected political affiliation could not justify the violence inflicted on him. Other contemporary coverage also connected the confrontation to Abrar's social-media activity. Because those motives were described differently across reports, this archive does not reduce the case to a single political explanation.

The investigation

Dhaka police moved quickly after the killing, using dormitory CCTV footage and witness accounts as part of the investigation. On November 13, 2019, police submitted a charge sheet against 25 current and former Bangladesh Chhatra League members connected to BUET. The prosecution case later relied on a broader record that included witness testimony, CCTV evidence and statements presented during the criminal proceedings.

The killing triggered protests and intense scrutiny of student political violence and coercive practices on university campuses. That wider debate is important context, but the criminal case itself turned on the evidence against the individuals charged with Abrar's murder.

The 2021 trial verdict

On December 8, 2021, Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 convicted all 25 defendants who stood trial. Twenty were sentenced to death and five received life imprisonment. Contemporary reporting described the court as finding the first group directly involved in the murder while imposing life terms on the remaining five for their roles in the crime.

The death sentences could not simply be carried out after the trial judgment. Under Bangladesh's legal process, death references were transmitted to the High Court for confirmation, while convicted defendants also pursued appeals.

The High Court ruling in 2025

After hearing the death references and the defendants' appeals, a High Court bench delivered judgment on March 16, 2025. It upheld all 20 death sentences and all five life terms. The full 131-page judgment was published on May 3, 2025.

The High Court's ruling is the reason this archive treats the responsibility question as adjudicated rather than merely alleged. It represents a second level of judicial review after the trial court, not simply an investigative conclusion or prosecution claim.

Further appeals are still part of the case

The High Court ruling did not necessarily end every available legal step. On May 19, 2025, reporting confirmed that death-row convict Morshed Omorto Islam had filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. By June 15, The Daily Star reported that at least ten convicted defendants had filed separate Appellate Division appeals challenging the High Court judgment.

In the most recent source review for this page, no later report establishing a final Appellate Division disposition for those appeals was located. For that reason, Crime by Region does not describe the sentences as finally executable or the appellate process as complete.

Why this case is classified as solved

Crime by Region uses Solved / Adjudicated when responsibility has been established through a substantial criminal proceeding, while separately recording whether appeals remain. Abrar Fahad's case meets that standard because all 25 trial defendants were convicted in 2021 and the High Court upheld the judgments in 2025.

The continuing appeals matter. They could affect the convictions or sentences and therefore remain part of the current legal status. “Solved” here does not mean “all legal proceedings are over.”

Timeline

Current status

The case is Solved / Adjudicated, with further appeals pending or unresolved in the available record. The High Court upheld the trial verdict on March 16, 2025. Subsequent Appellate Division appeals mean the page deliberately avoids presenting the legal process as fully exhausted.