2013 Shapla Square protests: what Wikipedia removed
The Shapla Square protests were a 2013 Islamist rally in Dhaka by Hefazat-e Islam, broken up by a security force crackdown with disputed death tolls ranging from 10-12 by government count to over 50 by independent estimates. The 2020 opening noted that Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations put the total death toll at above 50, and that rights groups have termed the events as a massacre. The word massacre does not appear in today’s opening at all, though it appears 14 times elsewhere in the article. A reader today does not learn that human rights organizations themselves characterized the security crackdown as a massacre.
The word “massacre” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2020. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 14. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| massacre | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| islamist | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| disputed | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The infobox casualty range was reworded and consolidated as part of a broader restructuring of the death toll figures.
- The clause crediting human rights groups with calling the crackdown a massacre was dropped, along with the massacre framing itself.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2015 (revision 668724083):
The 2013 Operation at Motijheel Shapla Chattar or officially Operation Secure Shapla is the term given to events on 5 and 6 May 2013, in the capital city of Dhaka , Bangladesh , encompassing a rally and protest by Hefajat-e Islam and the government’s use of a combined specialized force drawn from police , the elite Rapid Action Battalion and paramilitary force Border Guard Bangladesh to drive the protesters from Shapla Chattar. Objectives of this protest were demanding a blasphemy law , execution of “atheist bloggers” who were accused of insulting Muhammad , and ban on the mixing of men and women in public. In the early hours of 6 May, the government stopped transmissions of two leaning TV c…
2025 (revision 1297943299):
Casualties Deaths 93 killed ( Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh claims) 10-12 (government claims) 53-61 (Independent sources) The Shapla Square protests , also known as the Siege of Dhaka , Operation Shapla , and Operation Flash Out by security forces, was the protests and subsequent shootings of protesters on 5 and 6 May 2013 at Shapla Square , located in the Motijheel district, the main financial area of Dhaka , Bangladesh . The protests were organized by the Islamist advocacy group , Hefazat-e Islam , who were demanding the enactment of a blasphemy law . The government responded to the protests by cracking down on the protesters using a combined force drawn from the police , Rapid Action Battali…
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
Wikipedia text is quoted under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is not affiliated with Wikipedia.