2,165

people killed by law enforcement in Bangladesh
2009 – 2024

scroll to explore

Stolen years

Each arc is one life. Crimson is years lived. Gray is years taken.

0
years stolen
0
average age at death
73
life expectancy (Bangladesh)

Before the count began

Before 2009, no one was systematically counting. The silence before the data is its own story.

2,165 documented cases

Each circle represents a district where people were killed by law enforcement. The size shows how many. This is the full picture, 2009 to 2024.

Dhaka

273

The most documented cases in a single district. Dhaka alone accounts for 13% of all recorded killings.

2018

316

The year of the "war on drugs." Law enforcement killings spiked sharply. Crossfire and gunfight deaths dominated.

Who were they?

60%

of victims were labeled "criminals" by authorities — alleged robbers, drug suspects, dacoits. These are unverified police descriptions. Among those with age data, the average was 34 years old. Students, day labourers, political activists — ordinary people.

Explore the data

Click any district on the map to see individual cases. Filter by year, cause, and type.

Filter cases

2009 2024
0 cases up to 2024
Why doesn't this match 2,165?
The headline counts every documented case. This map shows only the 1,931 cases that could be placed on a district map (89.2% geocode rate). The remaining cases lack enough location detail to map, but they are included in the charts below.

Data overview

Based on all 2,165 documented cases

Spikes around key political events

Monthly killings by law enforcement surged during election periods and the 2018 anti-drug crackdown.

Cases per year

How they died

Custody status

Which agencies killed the most, and when

Police and RAB account for the vast majority of killings. RAB's share surged during the 2018 crackdown.

Age of victims

Who were the victims?

Categories based on how authorities identified victims. "Labeled as criminal" includes police descriptions like "alleged robber", "drug suspect", etc.

Every name matters

2,165 documented cases. Use the filters above to search by name, district, year, agency, and more.

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