[🇧🇩] Those who have laid down their lives to free Bangladesh

[Saif]

EX-MINISTER HOUSE ATTACK: Students hold coffin procession as injured fellow dies

A student who was injured in a counter attack by local people allegedly over attacking on the ousted Awami League government’s liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque on February 7 night, died while undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital Wednesday afternoon...

www.newagebd.net

EX-MINISTER HOUSE ATTACK: Students hold coffin procession as injured fellow dies
Staff Correspondent 13 February, 2025, 00:06

A student who was injured in a counter attack by local people allegedly over attacking on the ousted Awami League government’s liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque on February 7 night, died while undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital Wednesday afternoon.

The deceased was identified as Abdul Kashem, 17, a resident under Gacha police station in Gazipur city, who died at about 3:00pm on Wednesday at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, according to police and victim’s family.

‘The body was kept at the Dhaka Medical morgue for autopsy,’ said DMCH police outpost in-charge Md Faruk.

He said that Kashem had been taken to the DMCH at about 2:00am on February 8 in a critical condition, hours after he was injured in Gazipur.

Protesting at Kashem’s death, the Students Against Discrimination held a coffin procession at about 9:00pm on Wednesday following Kashem’s namaz-e-janaza at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital Dhaka, demanding banning the Awami League.

Central convener of the platform Hasnat Abdullah in a Facebook post announced the coffin procession programme. He also announced coffin processions in districts, upazilas and unions across the country.

At least 15 students were injured in the counter attack as several dozens of students allegedly went to attack the residence of Mozammel.

A case was filed with the Gazipur Sadar police station on February 9, mentioning names of 239 people and 200-300 unnamed others over the attack on members of the Students against Discrimination.

Gazipur Sadar police station officer-in-charge Md Mehedi Hasan told New Age that at least 160 people, including 28 on Wednesday, had been arrested so far in this connection.​

 

[Saif]

15 killed in 6 hrs even after Hasina’s departure

When the helicopter carrying former PM Sheikh Hasina, who was fleeing to India in the face of the mass uprising of the students and people, was crossing the border at around 2.30 pm, a massacre was unfolding in Savar

en.prothomalo.com

15 killed in 6 hrs even after Hasina’s departure
Md Abdullah Al Hossain
Dhaka
Updated: 06 Feb 2025, 10: 59

People carrying a man hit by bullet in front of the Lab Zone in Savar File photo

5 August 2024. When the helicopter carrying former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was fleeing to India in the face of the mass uprising of the students and people, was crossing the border at around 2.30 pm, a massacre was unfolding in Savar near Dhaka with intermittent fire from the police. There were ambushes in at least four places.

At least 15 people were killed there in just six hours after Sheikh Hasina fled the country. As many as 10 of them were students. The remaining of the deceased were day labourers and low income people. Besides, some 33 persons sustained severe bullet wounds in these incidents. This came up in a Prothom Alo investigation.

The protesting students and people came face to face with the policemen in front of the police station right before the evening. The police were equipped with lethal weapons while the students and people only had brickbats and sticks. All of sudden, the police started firing indiscriminately in the narrow lane filled with people and students.

The police opened fire even at the end of the day as they were fleeing from their stations. When the entire country was celebrating the fall of the government, it was an evening of terror for the residents of Savar.

During two months of investigation, Prothom Alo collected and analysed footage of at least 400 videos of these incidents and compiled them to make a documentary titled Savar Massacre: In the Six Hours After Hasina Fled.

Non-stop firing on the highway

The agitated students and people brought out a procession from the Jahangirnagar University campus with various slogans against Awami League. This procession was heading towards Ganabhaban. Around 11:00, the procession started gaining momentum as students from Ashulia Bypail joined.

Meanwhile, the police had taken a strong position in the Savar bus stand area since morning to prevent any procession from entering Dhaka. Local Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League leaders and activists with firearms were along with the police there. There had been intermittent fire in the lanes and the highways since the morning that day.

At around 11: 30 am, madrasah student Md Hasibur Rahman, 17, was shot. About an hour later another student Md Sazzad was shot. They both succumbed to their injuries later.

Meanwhile the procession brought out from the Jahangirnagar University to two and a half hours to reach the Savar bus stand area. The situation turned tense there. In the meantime, the news that the army chief would address the nation at 2:00 pm spread throughout the procession. As soon as the procession tried to move forward to Dhaka upon hearing the news, it was met with heavy police resistance, with tear gas and pellets being fired.

However, the protesters did not back off. To prevent them from moving ahead, the police were firing with lethal weapons. The protesters started to run away to save their lives. There are a number of videos of people carrying numerous injured persons who were hit by the bullets.

Eyewitness Md Mostafizur Rahmam said he saw three persons falling right beside him after being shot. Speaking to Prothom Alo, he said, “He was shot and fell in front of me. It made a hole in the side of his neck. Right next to him someone suddenly fell to the ground. The bullet probably got him in the chest or abdomen. Another fell to the right of him.”

Another teenager named Muzahid Mallik was shot dead. Auto-rickshaw driver Sujan Mia was shot right after. Sujan was shot on his chest and waist.

The highway became vacant following that. Although a large portion of the protesters returned after hearing the news of Sheikh Hasina’s departure from the country, a part of the protesters were scattered around in front of the New Market. Al-Amin was shot there.

At around 2:40 pm, the police backed off a little from the Savar bus stand and took position at the Pakeeza U-loop on the western side of the road. They were accompanied by the local Awami League leaders and activists there.

Nafisa Hossain was shot dead in front of the Pakeeza Model Mosque. A bullet hit the left of her chest and came out at the back, to the right.

At around 2:53 pm, police entered the Thana road from the Dhaka-Aricha highway. But they were still firing towards the highway. At that time, 10th grader Alif Ahmed Siyam, who was hiding behind the road divider, was shot.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Tania Ahmed, Alif Ahmed Siyam’s mother, said, “When he raised his head to look over the divider, the bullet hit him in the right eye and came out at the back. He fell to the ground immediately.”

Massacre in front of the police station

A portion of the protesting students moved towards Dhaka to celebrate the fall of the government. The other portion stayed put in Savar to create a resistance against police firing and moved forward to the Savar police station. They were chanting slogans that – ‘Sheikh Hasina has fled, Sheikh Hasina has run away.”

Later, at around 3:50 pm the police and protester came face to face at intersection near the Savar police station. The police force moved inside the police station at around 4:30 pm and locked up the main gate from inside. They urged the students to calm down with a mike from inside. Meanwhile, students and locals thronged in front of the police station. The students and general people increase in number in front of the police station. After a while, the police fired tear-shells from the roof of the mosque inside the police station. Then they started lethal gunfire.

A local trader in front was shot 18-19 times in his left hands and 20-22 times on right hands with pellets within seconds.

Speaking to Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity, he said, “I fell down immediately. I crawled past at least 5 shops. The skin and flesh on the knees were scraped off. Then I lost consciousness.”

A man in a red t-shirt was seen lying along the boundary wall of a hospital opposite to the police station. His identity could not be confirmed.

Schoolboy Safwan Akhter was shot dead at the intersection area. A bullet smashed his right hand and another hit on the right side of his chest. The 15-year-old was shot dead at the spot while demonstrating.

Worker Al Amin was shot dead there too. The bullet pierced through the left side of his chest and came out the back at the right. And auto-rickshaw driver Md Rafique was shot in between his chest and abdomen. He too died on the spot.

By that time, the intersection area became vacant. The students and people started thronging the Muktir Mor at around 5:15 pm. After the last round of firing, the crowds had grown.

The situation escalated at the Muktir Mor (an intersection) within a minute with the slogan – “direction action, Savar people into action! Direct action!”

People scattered around Muktir Mor and different other places started moving towards the Chowrasta (another intersection). More than 100 people thronged there and the area turned into a battlefield. Police “fired bullets like rain”.

Video footage of the incident shows protesters fleeing as the police started firing. Numerous gunshots could be hard in the last 15 seconds of the video. People were seen trying to save the lives of people who have been shot. A number of bodies had been lying on the road for a long time.

Bus driver Manik Hossain was lying right in front of the police after being shot by them. He lost consciousness five minutes after being shot.

The police continued the firing for at least half an hour. Speaking to Prothom Alo, student Nazmul Hossain shared the terrible experience that he went through that day.

“As I was running I felt something hit my foot like a 1000-volt-shock. I saw my big toe was hanging loose, shaking. A bone was sticking out of my heel. It was all white,” he recalled.

Prothom Alo has information of four people being shot dead there. They are – Nishan Khan, Tanjir Khan Munna, Abdul Ahad Shaikat and Md Mithu.

Student Mithu was shot in his chest. He died at the Muktir Mor on the way to the hospital. Another student named Tanjir Khan died of excessive bleeding after being shot in his thigh.

Nishan Khan had a wound on the back side of his head. He died at the hospital.

Ambush one after another

Firing was still on in the New Market area when a team of police took stance in the Thana bus stand area after Sheikh Hasina’s departure. There was intermittent firing for 20 minutes. Two other students - Abdul Quayyum and Shrabon Gazi - were shot to death there by 2:45 pm.

Quayyum’s friend Al Amin said, “Suddenly I saw Quayyum falling to the ground in slow motion. I still didn’t realise Quayyum had been hit. He fell down and when we were lifting him, we saw blood trickling out from his side. The bullet hit him in the kidney damaging everything inside. I think the bullet came from across the road. It was shot from the roof.”

The witnesses suspect Quayyum was shot from the multi-storeyed City Centre on the other side of the road. Seeing suspicious movement of people in red clothes on the roof of the building, the agitated mob vandalised the building.

There was another incident of sneak attack in the Thana bus stand area at around 3:00 pm. Police fired bullets from the road while some other unidentified person opened fire from a building nearby. The agitated protesters attacked the local popular hospital suspecting that the gunshots were coming from that building.

Later, the people formed a procession to move forward. The procession faced another round of ambush as soon as it crossed the Enam Medical College. The aggrieved people then attacked a high-rise building nearby. They vandalised the ground floor but did not find anybody.

There was another round of ambush around 5:15 pm at the Muktir Mor. People raided the Zunaid Tower suspecting that the bullets were fired from that building. But they couldn’t find anybody.

Gunshots targeting upper body parts

The Prothom Alo investigation has identified 15 persons who have been shot to death in the Savar upazila from noon to evening on 5 August. As many as 13 of them were shot on the upper parts of their bodies. Four of them sustained lethal bullet wounds and one was shot on the neck. Nine of them were shot in between chest and waist and one died after being shot in the thigh.

Police opened fire while fleeing

After killing and injuring a number of people, the police were looking for ways to flee. Some members of the police fled through the river. Many of the police members put off their uniform to flee. It became easier as it was already evening by that time.

However, most of the police members came out through the Thana road in a convoy. They were still firing from the convoy.

At least 150 police members were marching in front of the police convoy followed by some motorcycles. The motorcycles were ahead of a convoy of 13 cars. There was a pick up van, an armoured car, ambulance, microbus, leguna (locally made public transport) and a truck in the convoy.

The locals claim there were local leaders and activists of the Awami League and its associate bodies. However, the claim couldn’t be verified. The police continued firing in the nearby lanes when the convoy was on the highway.

Relentless sounds of gunshots spread fear among the residents of Savar upazila. In the end, the police convoy moved towards the cantonment.

* This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu​

 

[Saif]

Hastily buried in unmarked graves

The Daily Star investigates how July uprising protesters were disappeared in unmarked graves

www.thedailystar.net

The disappeared of the July uprising: Part 1
Hastily buried in unmarked graves

In Block 4 of Rayerbazar graveyard lie many unidentified victims of the July atrocities. Photo: Naimur Rahman

Seven months after the July uprising in Bangladesh, many protesters still remain missing. We investigated 31 cases: six were buried as unclaimed bodies at Rayerbazar graveyard; four were identified by families from among the charred bodies in Ashulia; two were handed over to families after DNA testing; and 19 are still unaccounted for. We found evidence of systematic government efforts to cover up medical records and bodies of the victims so they can never be found again. This four-part series also documents how families were denied time to collect the corpses from hospital morgues, and how they are now waiting for the bodies of their loved ones.

On July 18, 2024, two days after Abu Sayed's killing in Rangpur, Sohel Rana stepped out of his home in Dhaka's Jatrabari around 6:00pm to join the quota reform movement. He told his mother he would be back soon, but he never did.

Around an hour after he joined the protest in Jatrabari area, police detained Sohel, 28, tortured him, and then shot him several times, four fellow protesters and a person who admitted him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital told The Daily Star. His inquest report, prepared by Shahbagh police, confirms he had multiple pellet wounds on both sides of his chest and bruises on different parts of his body.

Faisal Sarker, 18, a college student who also worked as a supervisor of a bus company, left home for work at Abdullahpur bus stand in Uttara on July 19. By the time he got out, the crackdown on the streets was getting worse.

"The night he disappeared, we kept our front door open, thinking he would come home at any moment. My son never came home. Now I cannot even find his grave."— Rasheda Begum Sohel Rana's mother.

He called his mother to tell her that he was coming home, in Cumilla, to stay with her until the situation stabilised. His family last heard of him when he was crossing Uttara to get a bus. He then vanished.

The same day in Uttara, Md Assadullah, a driver and a father of two, was shot by Awami League-affiliated helmeted assailants, according to CCTV camera footage and multiple still images verified by The Daily Star.

Sohel, Faisal and Assadullah never knew each other in life. But their fates converged in death.

Their bodies, along with many others, ended up at Dhaka Medical College morgue. Unidentified, unclaimed.

A nationwide curfew, intended to quash the movement, kept their families from finding them, and the six were hurriedly buried in unmarked graves at Rayerbazar before their relatives could collect their bodies, an investigation by The Daily Star has found.

Meanwhile, at least 19 more families we spoke to continue searching for their fathers, sons, brothers or husbands whom they lost during the July uprising. But they don't know if they will ever find them as there are hardly any efforts from the government to resolve the mystery of these missing men.

Sohel Rana’s mother Rasheda Begum weeps as she touches the photo of her son at an exhibition. Photo: Collected
At least 12 of these 19 people went missing on August 4 and 5 from Dhaka, Savar, Gazipur, Sirajganj, Panchagarh and Bogura amid clashes and police firing.

The fact-finding report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) cited senior security officials' testimony, saying deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina herself ordered security forces to "arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies."

However, there is no official account yet of how many bodies were actually hidden by the state apparatus.

The Daily Star investigated 31 cases of unclaimed or missing bodies, but evidence suggests that the actual number is higher.

Over the last two months, we have pieced together hospital records and police inquest reports as well as records from Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a charity for burial service, and Rayerbazar graveyard, and found evidence of deliberate attempts by state forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies.

Burial of eight unidentified bodies related to the July massacre is underway at Rayerbazar graveyard on July 24, 2024. Photo: Collected

THE UNMARKED GRAVES

Anjuman Mufidul Islam is the only burial service in the country that handles unclaimed bodies. We reviewed its register and found that the charity buried 515 bodies from January to November 2024, an average of 47 bodies per month.

"We last heard of him when he said he was crossing Uttara to board a bus. There were sounds of gunfire. Since then, his phone has been switched off."— Abdur Rahim Brother-in-law of Faisal Sarker.

However, the body count jumped after the middle of July. Only in the last 10 days of that month, when police, Rab, BGB, Ansar and armed forces members were called in to tackle the protesters, Anjuman sent 45 bodies for burial in the Rayerbazar graveyard, just two less than its monthly average.

Anjuman's register shows it did not send a single body for burial from August 1 to 11, despite an intensified crackdown between August 2 and 5. But in the remaining 20 days, it buried 34 bodies.

We went to see the burial sites at Rayerbazar on January 29. Block 4 of the cemetery contained 114 graves without names or any other identifiable markings. Grave staffers said many were victims of the July uprising, but could not give a figure.

Analysing Rayerbazar's register, we found that 27 bodies buried in July and 13 in August had dates of death between July 17 and August 5, the final and the deadliest three weeks of Sheikh Hasina's 15-year authoritarian rule, when hundreds were killed and thousands injured by state forces.

In addition to Sohel, Faisal and Assadullah, at least three more protesters – Rafiqul Islam, Mahin Mia, and Ahmed Jilani – now lie in Rayerbazar as unidentified bodies, The Daily Star can confirm.

Photos of their bodies are still on display on a wall of Anjuman among the 114 buried in July-August.

Of the 114, at least 40 died between July 17 and August 5 and the rest 74 before and after that period. Based on the dates of death of the 40, it is likely that many of them were victims of the July massacre.

All the six July uprising victims that we have been able to identify went missing between July 18 and 20 in and around the protest hotspots—Jatrabari, Shonir Akhra, Uttara, and Mohammadpur, witnesses and family members said.

Except Jilani, who was killed on August 3 and laid to rest on August 31, the rest were buried in July, within days of their deaths. Apart from Mahin, who went missing from Mohammadpur and taken to Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, the other five were brought to DMCH.

When we met Sohel Rana's mother Rasheda Begum at her Jatrabari house in January, she clutched a picture of her son to her chest and wept.

"The night he disappeared, we kept our front door open, thinking he would come home at any moment. My son never came home. Now I cannot even find where among the 114 graves lies my son."

Read Part 2 tomorrow on the systematic efforts by state agencies to hide the true extent of the July massacre.​

 

[Saif]

Summarily killed, hastily buried

The Daily Star investigates how July uprising protesters were disappeared in unmarked graves

www.thedailystar.net

Summarily killed, hastily buried
Seven months after the July uprising in Bangladesh, many protesters still remain missing. We investigated 31 cases: six were buried as unclaimed bodies at Rayerbazar graveyard; four were identified by families from among the charred bodies in Ashulia; two were handed over to families after DNA testing; and 19 are still unaccounted for. We found evidence of systematic government efforts to cover up medical records and bodies of the victims so they can never be found again. This four-part series also documents how families were denied time to collect the corpses from hospital morgues, and how they are now waiting for the bodies of their loved ones.

On July 18, 2024, two days after Abu Sayed's killing in Rangpur, Sohel Rana stepped out of his home in Dhaka's Jatrabari around 6:00pm to join the quota reform movement. He told his mother he would be back soon, but he never did.

Around an hour after he joined the protest in Jatrabari area, police detained Sohel, 28, tortured him, and then shot him several times, four fellow protesters and a person who admitted him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital told The Daily Star. His inquest report, prepared by Shahbagh police, confirms he had multiple pellet wounds on both sides of his chest and bruises on different parts of his body.

Faisal Sarker, 18, a college student who also worked as a supervisor of a bus company, left home for work at Abdullahpur bus stand in Uttara on July 19. By the time he got out, the crackdown on the streets was getting worse.

Sohel Rana’s mother Rasheda Begum weeps as she touches the photo of her son at an exhibition. Photo: Collected

"The night he disappeared, we kept our front door open, thinking he would come home at any moment. My son never came home. Now I cannot even find his grave."— Rasheda Begum Sohel Rana's mother.

He called his mother to tell her that he was coming home, in Cumilla, to stay with her until the situation stabilised. His family last heard of him when he was crossing Uttara to get a bus. He then vanished.

The same day in Uttara, Md Assadullah, a driver and a father of two, was shot by Awami League-affiliated helmeted assailants, according to CCTV camera footage and multiple still images verified by The Daily Star.

Sohel, Faisal and Assadullah never knew each other in life. But their fates converged in death.

Their bodies, along with many others, ended up at Dhaka Medical College morgue. Unidentified, unclaimed.

A nationwide curfew, intended to quash the movement, kept their families from finding them, and the six were hurriedly buried in unmarked graves at Rayerbazar before their relatives could collect their bodies, an investigation by The Daily Star has found.

Meanwhile, at least 19 more families we spoke to continue searching for their fathers, sons, brothers or husbands whom they lost during the July uprising. But they don't know if they will ever find them as there are hardly any efforts from the government to resolve the mystery of these missing men.

At least 12 of these 19 people went missing on August 4 and 5 from Dhaka, Savar, Gazipur, Sirajganj, Panchagarh and Bogura amid clashes and police firing.

The fact-finding report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) cited senior security officials' testimony, saying deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina herself ordered security forces to "arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies."

However, there is no official account yet of how many bodies were actually hidden by the state apparatus.

The Daily Star investigated 31 cases of unclaimed or missing bodies, but evidence suggests that the actual number is higher.

Over the last two months, we have pieced together hospital records and police inquest reports as well as records from Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a charity for burial service, and Rayerbazar graveyard, and found evidence of deliberate attempts by state forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies.

THE UNMARKED GRAVES

Anjuman Mufidul Islam is the only burial service in the country that handles unclaimed bodies. We reviewed its register and found that the charity buried 515 bodies from January to November 2024, an average of 47 bodies per month.

"We last heard of him when he said he was crossing Uttara to board a bus. There were sounds of gunfire. Since then, his phone has been switched off."— Abdur Rahim Brother-in-law of Faisal Sarker.

However, the body count jumped after the middle of July. Only in the last 10 days of that month, when police, Rab, BGB, Ansar and armed forces members were called in to tackle the protesters, Anjuman sent 45 bodies for burial in the Rayerbazar graveyard, just two less than its monthly average.

Anjuman's register shows it did not send a single body for burial from August 1 to 11, despite an intensified crackdown between August 2 and 5. But in the remaining 20 days, it buried 34 bodies.

We went to see the burial sites at Rayerbazar on January 29. Block 4 of the cemetery contained 114 graves without names or any other identifiable markings. Grave staffers said many were victims of the July uprising, but could not give a figure.

Analysing Rayerbazar's register, we found that 27 bodies buried in July and 13 in August had dates of death between July 17 and August 5, the final and the deadliest three weeks of Sheikh Hasina's 15-year authoritarian rule, when hundreds were killed and thousands injured by state forces.

In addition to Sohel, Faisal and Assadullah, at least three more protesters – Rafiqul Islam, Mahin Mia, and Ahmed Jilani – now lie in Rayerbazar as unidentified bodies, The Daily Star can confirm.

Photos of their bodies are still on display on a wall of Anjuman among the 114 buried in July-August.

Of the 114, at least 40 died between July 17 and August 5 and the rest 74 before and after that period. Based on the dates of death of the 40, it is likely that many of them were victims of the July massacre.

All the six July uprising victims that we have been able to identify went missing between July 18 and 20 in and around the protest hotspots—Jatrabari, Shonir Akhra, Uttara, and Mohammadpur, witnesses and family members said.

Except Jilani, who was killed on August 3 and laid to rest on August 31, the rest were buried in July, within days of their deaths. Apart from Mahin, who went missing from Mohammadpur and taken to Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, the other five were brought to DMCH.

When we met Sohel Rana's mother Rasheda Begum at her Jatrabari house in January, she clutched a picture of her son to her chest and wept.

"The night he disappeared, we kept our front door open, thinking he would come home at any moment. My son never came home. Now I cannot even find where among the 114 graves lies my son."

Read Part 2 tomorrow on the systematic efforts by state agencies to hide the true extent of the July massacre.​

 

[Bilal9]

EX-MINISTER HOUSE ATTACK: Students hold coffin procession as injured fellow dies

A student who was injured in a counter attack by local people allegedly over attacking on the ousted Awami League government’s liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque on February 7 night, died while undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital Wednesday afternoon...

www.newagebd.net

EX-MINISTER HOUSE ATTACK: Students hold coffin procession as injured fellow dies
Staff Correspondent 13 February, 2025, 00:06

A student who was injured in a counter attack by local people allegedly over attacking on the ousted Awami League government’s liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque on February 7 night, died while undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital Wednesday afternoon.

The deceased was identified as Abdul Kashem, 17, a resident under Gacha police station in Gazipur city, who died at about 3:00pm on Wednesday at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, according to police and victim’s family.

‘The body was kept at the Dhaka Medical morgue for autopsy,’ said DMCH police outpost in-charge Md Faruk.

He said that Kashem had been taken to the DMCH at about 2:00am on February 8 in a critical condition, hours after he was injured in Gazipur.

Protesting at Kashem’s death, the Students Against Discrimination held a coffin procession at about 9:00pm on Wednesday following Kashem’s namaz-e-janaza at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital Dhaka, demanding banning the Awami League.

Central convener of the platform Hasnat Abdullah in a Facebook post announced the coffin procession programme. He also announced coffin processions in districts, upazilas and unions across the country.

At least 15 students were injured in the counter attack as several dozens of students allegedly went to attack the residence of Mozammel.

A case was filed with the Gazipur Sadar police station on February 9, mentioning names of 239 people and 200-300 unnamed others over the attack on members of the Students against Discrimination.

Gazipur Sadar police station officer-in-charge Md Mehedi Hasan told New Age that at least 160 people, including 28 on Wednesday, had been arrested so far in this connection.​

They should drop a few incendiary bombs in that Gazipur area (stronghold of AL). These people need "shock and awe" treatment like in Iraq. Maybe after Ramzan.

 

[Bilal9]

Hastily buried in unmarked graves

The Daily Star investigates how July uprising protesters were disappeared in unmarked graves

www.thedailystar.net

The disappeared of the July uprising: Part 1
Hastily buried in unmarked graves
View attachment 15360
In Block 4 of Rayerbazar graveyard lie many unidentified victims of the July atrocities. Photo: Naimur Rahman

Seven months after the July uprising in Bangladesh, many protesters still remain missing. We investigated 31 cases: six were buried as unclaimed bodies at Rayerbazar graveyard; four were identified by families from among the charred bodies in Ashulia; two were handed over to families after DNA testing; and 19 are still unaccounted for. We found evidence of systematic government efforts to cover up medical records and bodies of the victims so they can never be found again. This four-part series also documents how families were denied time to collect the corpses from hospital morgues, and how they are now waiting for the bodies of their loved ones.

On July 18, 2024, two days after Abu Sayed's killing in Rangpur, Sohel Rana stepped out of his home in Dhaka's Jatrabari around 6:00pm to join the quota reform movement. He told his mother he would be back soon, but he never did.

Around an hour after he joined the protest in Jatrabari area, police detained Sohel, 28, tortured him, and then shot him several times, four fellow protesters and a person who admitted him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital told The Daily Star. His inquest report, prepared by Shahbagh police, confirms he had multiple pellet wounds on both sides of his chest and bruises on different parts of his body.

Faisal Sarker, 18, a college student who also worked as a supervisor of a bus company, left home for work at Abdullahpur bus stand in Uttara on July 19. By the time he got out, the crackdown on the streets was getting worse.

"The night he disappeared, we kept our front door open, thinking he would come home at any moment. My son never came home. Now I cannot even find his grave."— Rasheda Begum Sohel Rana's mother.

He called his mother to tell her that he was coming home, in Cumilla, to stay with her until the situation stabilised. His family last heard of him when he was crossing Uttara to get a bus. He then vanished.

The same day in Uttara, Md Assadullah, a driver and a father of two, was shot by Awami League-affiliated helmeted assailants, according to CCTV camera footage and multiple still images verified by The Daily Star.

View attachment 15361


Sohel, Faisal and Assadullah never knew each other in life. But their fates converged in death.

Their bodies, along with many others, ended up at Dhaka Medical College morgue. Unidentified, unclaimed.

A nationwide curfew, intended to quash the movement, kept their families from finding them, and the six were hurriedly buried in unmarked graves at Rayerbazar before their relatives could collect their bodies, an investigation by The Daily Star has found.

Meanwhile, at least 19 more families we spoke to continue searching for their fathers, sons, brothers or husbands whom they lost during the July uprising. But they don't know if they will ever find them as there are hardly any efforts from the government to resolve the mystery of these missing men.

Sohel Rana’s mother Rasheda Begum weeps as she touches the photo of her son at an exhibition. Photo: Collected
At least 12 of these 19 people went missing on August 4 and 5 from Dhaka, Savar, Gazipur, Sirajganj, Panchagarh and Bogura amid clashes and police firing.

The fact-finding report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) cited senior security officials' testimony, saying deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina herself ordered security forces to "arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies."

However, there is no official account yet of how many bodies were actually hidden by the state apparatus.

The Daily Star investigated 31 cases of unclaimed or missing bodies, but evidence suggests that the actual number is higher.

Over the last two months, we have pieced together hospital records and police inquest reports as well as records from Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a charity for burial service, and Rayerbazar graveyard, and found evidence of deliberate attempts by state forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies.

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Burial of eight unidentified bodies related to the July massacre is underway at Rayerbazar graveyard on July 24, 2024. Photo: Collected

THE UNMARKED GRAVES

Anjuman Mufidul Islam is the only burial service in the country that handles unclaimed bodies. We reviewed its register and found that the charity buried 515 bodies from January to November 2024, an average of 47 bodies per month.

"We last heard of him when he said he was crossing Uttara to board a bus. There were sounds of gunfire. Since then, his phone has been switched off."— Abdur Rahim Brother-in-law of Faisal Sarker.

However, the body count jumped after the middle of July. Only in the last 10 days of that month, when police, Rab, BGB, Ansar and armed forces members were called in to tackle the protesters, Anjuman sent 45 bodies for burial in the Rayerbazar graveyard, just two less than its monthly average.

Anjuman's register shows it did not send a single body for burial from August 1 to 11, despite an intensified crackdown between August 2 and 5. But in the remaining 20 days, it buried 34 bodies.

We went to see the burial sites at Rayerbazar on January 29. Block 4 of the cemetery contained 114 graves without names or any other identifiable markings. Grave staffers said many were victims of the July uprising, but could not give a figure.

Analysing Rayerbazar's register, we found that 27 bodies buried in July and 13 in August had dates of death between July 17 and August 5, the final and the deadliest three weeks of Sheikh Hasina's 15-year authoritarian rule, when hundreds were killed and thousands injured by state forces.

In addition to Sohel, Faisal and Assadullah, at least three more protesters – Rafiqul Islam, Mahin Mia, and Ahmed Jilani – now lie in Rayerbazar as unidentified bodies, The Daily Star can confirm.

Photos of their bodies are still on display on a wall of Anjuman among the 114 buried in July-August.

Of the 114, at least 40 died between July 17 and August 5 and the rest 74 before and after that period. Based on the dates of death of the 40, it is likely that many of them were victims of the July massacre.

All the six July uprising victims that we have been able to identify went missing between July 18 and 20 in and around the protest hotspots—Jatrabari, Shonir Akhra, Uttara, and Mohammadpur, witnesses and family members said.

Except Jilani, who was killed on August 3 and laid to rest on August 31, the rest were buried in July, within days of their deaths. Apart from Mahin, who went missing from Mohammadpur and taken to Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, the other five were brought to DMCH.

When we met Sohel Rana's mother Rasheda Begum at her Jatrabari house in January, she clutched a picture of her son to her chest and wept.

"The night he disappeared, we kept our front door open, thinking he would come home at any moment. My son never came home. Now I cannot even find where among the 114 graves lies my son."

Read Part 2 tomorrow on the systematic efforts by state agencies to hide the true extent of the July massacre.​

Very sad and heartbreaking. Bewarish burials - when they had families and relatives, who could not bury them and draw closure.

Zalim Hasina and Modi will pay...

 

[Saif]

Zalim Hasina and Modi will pay...

Hasina is Modi's kept and as long as Modi is alive he will not hand Hasina over to Bangladesh for a trial.

 

[Saif]

AL govt sought to hide true extent of massacre

They all had families, desperately searching for them amid a nationwide curfew and internet shutdown at the height of the July uprising. Yet, they were buried as "unclaimed" bodies within one to six days after being shot dead, before their loved ones could find them. Seven months after the July

www.thedailystar.net

The disappeared of the July Uprising: Part 2
AL govt sought to hide true extent of massacre

The ‘Wall of the Dead” at Anjuman Mufidul Islam. Among these 114 buried in unmarked graves in Rayerbazar in July-August 2024 are many victims of the July massacre. Photo: Collected

Seven months after the July uprising in Bangladesh, many protesters still remain missing. We investigated 31 cases: six were buried as unclaimed bodies at Rayerbazar graveyard; four were identified by families from among the charred bodies in Ashulia; two were handed over to families after DNA testing; and 19 are still unaccounted for. We found evidence of systematic government efforts to cover up medical records and bodies of the victims so they can never be found again. This four-part series also documents how families were denied time to collect the corpses from hospital morgues, and how they are now waiting for the bodies of their loved ones.

They all had families, desperately searching for them amid a nationwide curfew and internet shutdown at the height of the July uprising. Yet, they were buried as "unclaimed" bodies within one to six days after being shot dead, before their loved ones could find them. Seven months after the July killings, these families do not know where their kin rest.

An investigation by The Daily Star indicates that the hasty burials of the victims were part of a systematic effort by the fallen Awami League government to conceal the true extent of the massacre.

In some cases, medical records were tampered with and standard protocols for handling unclaimed bodies were bypassed. In other cases, the police quickly disposed of the bodies even though hospital morgues had the capacity to keep them longer, according to documents and morgue sources.

For example, Dhaka Medical College Hospital has two morgues with a combined capacity to hold around 100 bodies.

Before July 15, when killings of the protesters had not yet begun, there were 28 bodies in its mortuaries, said Ramu Chandra Das, a morgue assistant.

Yet, general diaries from Shahbagh police and registers at DMCH morgue and Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a burial service, show that eight protesters were buried on July 24 as "unclaimed" bodies in Rayerbazar graveyard within one to six days of their deaths.

These eight bodies include Sohel Rana, Md Assadullah, Faisal Sarker and Rafiqul Islam, who were killed by gunshots (Read their story in Part 1 of this series). The identities of the rest four remain unknown.

Asked why they got rid of these bodies so fast, Ramu said, "It was done on police instructions. We could have kept the bodies longer."

(Left) Documents show six of the seven bodies buried by Anjuman on July 8 remained at the DMCH morgue for more than 10.

(Right) In contrast, all eight bodies sent from Shahbagh Police Station on July 24 were kept for less than two days.

Typically, DMCH reports about unclaimed bodies to police about a week after the bodies are brought to the hospital. Upon completion of various official processes, including autopsies, burial of such corpses takes about a month or even more.

"We could've kept the body longer; there were ample empty freezers. But the police took away the body."— Jatan Kumar, a morgue assistant at Suhrawardy hospital, about the hurried burial of a protester.

"We usually keep unclaimed bodies for at least a week in the morgue. Many bodies are also kept for months or even years," Ramu said.

Documentary evidence also suggests that DMCH does keep unclaimed bodies longer.

For instance, on July 8, 2024, a week before state forces began to kill protesters, Anjuman Mufidul sent seven bodies, all from DMCH, to Rayerbazar for burial. Records show they died between June 12 and July 4. This means, before these bodies were sent to Anjuman, six of the bodies were kept at mortuaries for about three weeks or more.

In contrast, Anjuman received eight bodies on July 24, by which time the number of corpses at hospitals was rising every day. Records show that four of these eight died just the previous day, and the four others the day before.

This suggests a systematic effort to erase evidence and prevent families from finding their loved ones.

According to the eight general diaries filed by Sub-inspector Jabbar from Shahbagh Police Station in relation to these bodies, six were from Jatrabari, and two from Uttara. All died from gunshot wounds, the GDs show.

Usually, Anjuman receives unclaimed bodies from hospitals after autopsies in the presence of police officers who facilitate the process. Before the handover of the bodies, representatives from Anjuman and a police officer are required to sign the morgue register.

"I just followed orders from Shahbagh's then officer-in-charge Mostajizur Rahman."— Constable Salauddin on why he rushed the burial of eight unidentified bodies.

However, this protocol was not followed in the case of at least nine bodies connected to the uprising.

Sub-inspector Salahuddin of Shahbagh police collected eight of these bodies from Dhaka Medical, and Sub-inspector Shakil Joarder of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police collected another body from Suhrawardy Medical.

In both instances, Anjuman received the bodies from the respective police stations rather than directly from the hospitals, documents show.

Asked why he rushed the burial of these individuals, Shahbagh police Constable Salauddin said he just followed orders from Shahbagh's then officer-in-charge Mostajizur Rahman. Two other police officers gave a similar version. Mostajizur could not be reached for comments.

Both the DMCH authorities and Salauddin claimed that no other bodies related to the protests were sent to Anjuman.

Medical Records Tampered

Apart from DMCH, two other hospitals in Dhaka store unclaimed bodies—Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Sir Salimullah Medical College (Mitford Hospital).

Both hospitals claim they haven't dealt with any protest-related unclaimed bodies.

Our findings about Suhrawardy Medical contradict this. (We did not investigate Mitford hospital's claim.)

Mahin Mia, one of the six confirmed by The Daily Star to have been buried at Rayerbazar as unclaimed bodies, protested on July 19 at Mohammadpur's Town Hall with his brother, Abdul Jabbar. Jabbar returned home, but Mahin did not.

Jabbar later found Mahin's picture among the deceased on Anjuman's "wall of the dead".

Mahin's wife gave birth to their first child 15 days after he disappeared.

The Daily Star found Mahin's autopsy report (autopsy # 679/24) from Suhrawardy Medical College. The report describes him as "unidentified" and says he was found on July 19, the day he went missing, with bullet wounds on both sides of his head.

His family later confirmed his identity from the photo on the autopsy report.

Suhrawardy Medical's morgue records show that Mahin's autopsy was done on July 20, and his body was handed over to Sher-e-Bangla police Sub-inspector Shakil Joarder two days later.

"We could've kept the body longer; there were ample empty freezers. But the police took away the body," says Jatan Kumar, a morgue assistant at the hospital.

SI Shakil told The Daily Star that he only handed over the body to Suhrawardy morgue, but did not collect it from there to send it for burial. However, the morgue register bears his name on two dates in relation to Mahin's body: on July 19, the day he handed over the body to Suhrawardy morgue for an autopsy, and on July 22, the day he collected it for burial. The Daily Star contacted him on the very mobile number recorded in the morgue register.

Despite such hard evidence, the Suhrawardy morgue authorities claim they did not deal with any unnamed bodies.

Apart from Mahin, eight other unclaimed bodies from Suhrawardy, with dates of death from July 17-23, were buried at Rayerbazar from July 22-27. Of them, five were aged between 23 and 35, according to the cemetery register.

At least some of these bodies are likely connected to the uprising, although we could not verify it as we could not collect their autopsy reports and other relevant documents.

Dhaka Medical's claim that only eight uprising victims were sent to Anjuman is also questionable.

For example, Ahmed Jilani was killed on August 3. His autopsy was conducted on August 13 at DMCH, and he was buried at Rayerbazar on August 31. The autopsy report shows he had gunshot and stab wounds on the back of his head.

Based on the autopsy numbers of the other eight bodies and Jilani, The Daily Star can confirm that Jilani is not on the DMCH list of the eight unnamed bodies buried at Rayerbazar.

Our suspicion that medical and burial records were tampered with to conceal the true extent of the massacre aligns with the UN fact-finding report.

The report, published last month, mentions that state agencies confiscated medical records and CCTV footage in many hospitals, without due process, and medical staff were pressured to withhold proper medical documentation.

In some hospitals, deaths from gunshot wounds were recorded as "accidental" under threat of legal action. From July 18 onwards, autopsies were often delayed or not conducted at all, violating national and international standards, the report adds.

[Read Part 3 tomorrow on how state agencies sought to cover up bodies, and how families were denied time to find their loved ones.]​