[🇧🇩] UN investigation into enforced disappearances /deaths of students/citizens at the hands of security agencies

[Saif]

Sheikh Hasina's Regime Behind Possible ‘Crimes Against Humanity’, Says United Nations

 

[Saif]

RIGHTS ABUSES DURING JULY PROTESTS: UN for bringing perpetrators to book

The United Nations Human Rights Office in its fact-finding report on rights abuses related to July-August protests in Bangladesh has called for suspending officials, including those at the command and leadership level...

www.newagebd.net

RIGHTS ABUSES DURING JULY PROTESTS: UN for bringing perpetrators to book
Mustafizur Rahman 14 February, 2025, 00:02

The United Nations Human Rights Office in its fact-finding report on rights abuses related to July-August protests in Bangladesh has called for suspending officials, including those at the command and leadership level, facing credible allegations of serious human rights violations.

The report published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights from Geneva on Wednesday also suggested holding the officials accountable to the law.

‘Ensure that perpetrators are held accountable according to law, and consistent with international standards, including where individuals in positions of command and leadership are suspected of criminal responsibility, and that victims have access to effective remedies and reparation,’ the report said.

It also called on the government to reveal and close all clandestine places of detention operated by intelligence, paramilitary, police or military forces, and investigate and prosecute the identified perpetrators of enforced disappearance, torture, and other crimes committed in such places.

The UN rights body also recommended ensuring effective, fair, impartial and comprehensive processes to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearance and sexual and gender-based violence, including cases that predate the 2024 quota protests, and cases of revenge violence.

The OHCHR suggested the establishment of an effective and sufficiently independent human rights screening mechanism to ensure that no Bangladeshi personnel deployed to UN peace operations or other international missions is subject to credible allegations of international human rights, humanitarian or refugee law violations, or of any instance of sexual exploitation or abuse.

‘Until such a screening mechanism has been established, the government should agree with the United Nations Department of Peace Operations not to nominate for peacekeeping any military or police personnel who served with RAB, DGFI, or Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch at any previous point, or in any of the BGB Battalions deployed to the 2024 protests or previous instances of protests suppressed with use of force human rights violations,’ said the report.

About the implementation of the recommendations in the UN report, foreign ministry spokesperson Mohammad Rafiqul Alam said on Thursday that the government would decide in this regard after consulting with its stakeholders.

‘Based on direct testimony from senior officials involved and other inside sources, OHCHR was able to establish that the integrated and systematic effort using the entire range of police, paramilitary, military and intelligence actors, as well as violent elements linked to the Awami League, to commit serious violations and abuses occurred with the full knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership,’ the report said.

It said that beyond the need to ensure justice and accountability, there was an urgent need for broader reform of the security and justice sectors, the abolition of a host of repressive laws and institutions designed to stifle civic and political dissent, and the institution of profound changes to Bangladesh’s political and economic governance systems.

The report suggested ensuring the independence and impartiality of the judiciary at the institutional and individual level, in law and in practice, by ensuring that a genuinely independent mechanism is responsible for the recruitment, suspension, removal and discipline of judges, protecting judges against intimidation and harassment, preventing inappropriate or unwarranted interference including politically motivated interference and corruption.

As an immediate priority, it underlined the need for compilation and preservation of relevant evidence, including official orders and other internal documents and forensic evidence, and take disciplinary and criminal justice measures against officials and others who seek to destroy or hide evidence.

It also called for issuing ‘binding general directives – pending repeal of Art. 132 Code of Criminal Procedure Act and similar immunity-like provisions in other laws – authorising investigations and prosecutions of public officials’.

‘Reform the legal framework to clarify and ensure that crimes involving serious human rights violations committed against civilians are prosecuted before the regular courts, even if alleged against members of the military or any other personnel subject to military jurisdiction,’ said the report.

It also suggested initiating an inclusive nationwide dialogue and consultation to develop a holistic and context-specific transitional justice model that embeds the fair and effective pursuit of criminal justice, especially for the most responsible perpetrators.

The report called for establishing an independent public prosecution service staffed with professional full-time personnel with integrity, appropriate training and qualifications, and ensuring safeguards against appointments based on partiality, including political party affiliation or prejudice.

Conducted at the invitation of the interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus, the UN investigation into rights violations from July 1, 2024 to August 15, 2024 revealed that the ousted prime minister and Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, herself ordered security forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies to quell the student-led protests in July 2024 in Bangladesh.

It said that the Sheikh Hasina government and security and intelligence services, alongside violent elements associated with the Awami League, systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations during the student-led protests.

Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has welcomed the report and thanked the OHCHR for undertaking an independent investigation into the rights violations and abuses during the July-August student-led mass uprising that ousted the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024.

The UN report recommended disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion and returning personnel not involved in serious violations to their home units and confining the functions of the BGB to border control issues and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence to military intelligence and limiting and delineating their resources and legal powers accordingly.​

 

[Saif]

Only trial of July-Aug crimes can make reparations

THE findings of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report on the student protests and consequent mass uprising in July–August 2024 that it was the prime minister Sheikh Hasina, deposed on August 5 that year, ordered security forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies point...

www.newagebd.net

Only trial of July-Aug crimes can make reparations
14 February, 2025, 00:00

THE findings of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report on the student protests and consequent mass uprising in July–August 2024 that it was the prime minister Sheikh Hasina, deposed on August 5 that year, ordered security forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies point to heinous crimes. The report, released in Geneva on February 12, also holds security and intelligence services along with violent elements associated with the fallen Awami League and its government for their systematic engagement in a range of serious rights violation during the protests and uprising. The then home affairs minister, who presided over a meeting that the chiefs of the police, the Rapid Action Battalion and the Border Guard Bangladesh and intelligence agency leaders attended on July 18, 2024, asked the border guard commander to order the use of lethal force to quell the protests. Sheikh Hasina at a meeting the next day asked security force officials to kill the protesters, especially ‘ringleaders’ of the protests, and hide their bodies.

The report says that this corroborates what the Awami League’s general secretary on July 19 said, having ordered security forces to ‘shoot on sight’, which is manifestly incompatible with international rights standards. The ‘brutal response’ was a calculated, well-coordinated strategy of the Awami League to hold onto power. The report estimates 1,400 people to have been killed in July 1–August 15 and thousands wounded. Of them, 12–13 per cent were children and 44 were police officers. The use of military rifles was responsible for 66 per cent of the death, shotguns with pellets for 12 per cent, pistols for 2 per cent and other causes for 12 per cent. The report mentions former senior officials directly involved in handling the protests describe how Sheikh Hasina and other senior officials oversaw a series of large-scale operations in which security and intelligence units shot and killed protesters or arbitrarily arrested and tortured them. The UN investigation also finds an official policy to attack and violently repress protesters against government and their sympathisers which constitutes crimes against humanity that require further criminal investigation. All this shows that in addition to the abuses and crimes that the Awami League government made, law enforcement units were militarised. The UN report recommends disbanding the Rapid Action Battalion, confining the functions of border guards to border control issues and of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence to military intelligence and limiting their resources and legal powers.

The government must, therefore, expeditiously and credibly try the perpetrators of such crimes as only trial can make reparations. The government must also reform security and justice sectors, abolish repressive laws and dismantle institutions designed to stifle civic and political dissent.​

 

[Saif]

Enforced disappearances must never happen

THE horror of the secret detention centres that law enforcement and security forces ran and kept victims of enforced disappearances for months and years during the Awami League regime, toppled in a mass uprising on August 5, 2024, was evident even after modifications were made to the centres...

www.newagebd.net

Enforced disappearances must never happen
14 February, 2025, 00:00

THE horror of the secret detention centres that law enforcement and security forces ran and kept victims of enforced disappearances for months and years during the Awami League regime, toppled in a mass uprising on August 5, 2024, was evident even after modifications were made to the centres. While media reports and the report of the commission of inquiry on enforced disappearances, which the interim government formed on August 8, made the horror of the secret detention centres, also known as Aynaghar, public, people in at home and abroad could see the centres on February 12 when the chief adviser, a number of other advisers, the commission of inquiry members, enforced disappearances victims and local and international media visited a few centres at Agargaon, Kachukhet and Uttara in Dhaka. One cannot but be horrified by the visuals of the detention centres, most of which are no larger than a grave, by the few still existing words and prayers written on the walls by the victims, the tools used for torturing the victims and the victims’ harrowing tale of torture and ill-treatment.

The detention centres, where victims of enforced disappearances, mostly members of political opponents, were kept and tortured and many of whom have never returned, testify to the heinous crimes that the Awami League regime committed. More than 600 cases of enforced disappearances have been reported since the Awami League government assumed office in 2009. In some cases, the people who disappeared were later found dead. In other cases, they returned but kept silent about what happened. The whereabouts of some are yet to be known. The families of the enforced disappearance victims even found it difficult to lodge complaints as the police, who control the complaint mechanism, often outright refused to register complaints about enforced disappearances while the Awami League government denied the existence of the secret detention centres and ignored calls of local and international rights organisations for independent and impartial investigation of the incidents of enforced disappearances. The detention centres are a scar, an affront to justice and a blatant abuse of law enforcement and intelligence units. The centres have tainted Bangladesh’s image as much as the image of law enforcement and intelligence units.

The country must ensure that heinous crimes like enforced disappearances do not happen again and that agencies are never politicised and they never engage in criminal, illegal, or extra-legal deeds. The government must bring all parties, including errant members of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, responsible to justice and make the required reforms to the operation of law enforcement and intelligence units.​

 

[Saif]

How Hasina lost control in August

A report of the UN fact-finding mission presented a detailed account of how the ousted prime minister lost her control over the helm of the country’s affairs and eventually fled the country. According to the report, released on Wednesday, extrajudicial killings to suppress the “March o

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

How Hasina lost control in August
‘On the morning of August 5, Army and BGB personnel largely stood by and did not implement their assigned roles in the plan’ - UN Report

FE ONLINE REPORT
Published :
Feb 13, 2025 19:19
Updated :
Feb 13, 2025 19:20

A report of the UN fact-finding mission presented a detailed account of how the ousted prime minister lost her control over the helm of the country’s affairs and eventually fled the country.

According to the report, released on Wednesday, extrajudicial killings to suppress the “March on Dhaka” (5 August) Public announcements by the protest leaders and information obtained by intelligence agencies gave Bangladesh’s political leadership the knowledge that the protest movement was planning a major protest march towards the centre of Dhaka on 5 August.

“On the morning of August 4, the then Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the National Security Council in which, inter alia, the chiefs of the Army, Air Force, Navy, BGB, DGFI, NSI, police and its special branch, and the ministers of Home Affairs, Education and Foreign Affairs, according to participants. They discussed reimposing and enforcing a curfew to prevent the “March on Dhaka.”

“After the meeting, the Home Affairs Ministry declared that a strict curfew would continue indefinitely without breaks, while the Prime Minister issued a statement describing the protesters as terrorists and appealing to our countrymen to suppress these terrorists with a strong hand,” the report added.

A second meeting was held in the late evening of August 4 at the Prime Minister’s residence, attended by the Prime Minister herself, the Minister of Home Affairs, the heads of the Army, police, RAB, BGB and Ansar/VDP, the Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division and the Army’s Quartermaster General, among others. During the meeting, the Army Chief and other security officials reassured the Prime Minister that Dhaka could be held, according to senior officials. A plan was agreed in which the Army and BGB would deploy alongside police to block protesters from accessing central Dhaka, if necessary by force. The Army and BGB were to block access routes into central Dhaka by deploying armoured vehicles and troops and not letting protesters pass, while the police were to “control mobs,” according to senior officials who participated in those meetings”.

“Consistent with these testimonies, at 00:55 am on 5 August, the former Director-General of the Special Security Forces, which was Sheikh Hasina’s personal bodyguard force, sent two consecutive WhatsApp messages to the Director-General of the BGB. According to hard copies of those messages provided to OHCHR, the first message forwarded a broadcast message that appeared to be from protest leaders informing marchers on routes to take into central Dhaka. The second message appeared to contain a video outlining an order of battle, distinguishing a first and second line of defence, a third long-range unit, a backup unit and a rear guard, along with advice from protest leaders on how to circumvent these lines of defence.

“On the morning of 5 August, Army and BGB personnel largely stood by and did not implement their assigned roles in the plan. One senior official testified that the Army had not deployed the forces that it promised to deploy, while another noted that BGB let some 10,000-15,000 protesters per hour pass by entry points it was supposed to control. A third senior official recounted how he knew that something was going wrong when he saw CCTV footage showing 500-600 protestors moving from Uttara towards central Dhaka without the Army stopping them”.

“A fourth senior official personally called the Prime Minister to inform her that things were not going according to plan,” it added.

Between July 15 and August 05 2024, at least six journalists were killed at or around protests in Dhaka, Sylhet and Sirajganj. Around 200 journalists were injured, according to figures provided by a reputable civil society organisation.

In some of the cases below, for which OHCHR obtained first-hand testimony, journalists were victims of security forces indiscriminately firing at protesters. However, in other cases, journalists were directly targeted with violence due to the exercise of their profession, including in some cases by protesters. “Photojournalists were especially subject to aggressions by different actors who did not wish their involvement in events to be recorded, said the report.

​

 

[Saif]

Security forces used helicopters to scare protesters, says UN report on July uprising

A United Nations report has said that Bangladesh’s security forces used helicopters to intimidate protesters and possibly deploy unlawful force during a student-led uprising against the government of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, citing evidence of human rights violations. The report, i

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Security forces used helicopters to scare protesters, says UN report on July uprising
FE ONLINE DESK
Published :
Feb 13, 2025 21:08
Updated :
Feb 13, 2025 21:10

A United Nations report has said that Bangladesh’s security forces used helicopters to intimidate protesters and possibly deploy unlawful force during a student-led uprising against the government of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, citing evidence of human rights violations.

The report, issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), police, and reportedly the Army’s aviation unit deployed helicopters in response to the protests. RAB’s black helicopters were particularly used to intimidate protesters and deploy force against them.

Citing senior officials, the report alleged that the-then home minister specifically demanded the deployment of more helicopters to scare protesters, following the example set by RAB. Army officers were also said to have directly informed the –then Prime Minister about the deployment of helicopters

According to eyewitness testimony cited in the report, tear gas was repeatedly deployed from RAB or police helicopters against groups of protesters in Mirpur (18 July), Mohakhali (18 July), Dhanmondi (18 and 19 July), Badda (19 July), Mohammadpur (19 July) 38 and Rampura (19 July), Shahbagh (19 July) and Bashundhara (19 July, 2 and 3 August) and Gazipur (20 July) and Jatrabari (20 and 21 July), as well as sound grenades in Rampura (18 July).

Witnesses also testified that they saw personnel on helicopters shooting rifles or shotguns loaded with lethal ammunition at protesters during the period of 19-21 July, including in Badda, Bashundhara, Gazipur, Jatrabari, Mirpur, Mohakhali, Mohammadpur, and Rampura.

The report highlighted an incident on 5 August in the Jamuna Future Park area, where one man was hit by a fragment of an armour-piercing bullet that was examined by OHCHR. The victim alleged that he was shot at from an olive-green helicopter.

The OHCHR observed that shooting firearms from a helicopter at crowds of protesters is inherently indiscriminate and therefore a violation of human rights standards, since—as also acknowledged by a former senior official—the weapons cannot be reliably aimed at particular individuals specifically posing an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

Bangladesh’s Inspector General of Police and the Director-General of RAB acknowledged that tear gas and sound grenades were dropped from helicopters but said there was no confirmed instance of firearms being used from the air.

Bangladesh’s Inspector General of Police and the Director-General of RAB acknowledged that RAB helicopters dropped tear gas and sound grenades on protesters but could not confirm that security forces shot firearms from RAB helicopters.

The OHCHR report noted that RAB reported firing 738 teargas shells, 190 sound grenades and 557 stun grenades from helicopters but asserted that it had not shot once with rifles or shotguns from helicopters.

The OHCHR said it had reviewed video footage showing tear gas launchers being fired from helicopters but could not verify reports of rifle or shotgun use. It noted that many shooting incidents allegedly occurred when mobile and broadband internet was shut down, limiting the circulation of footage.

The OHCHR mentioned that it had obtained and analysed a number of videos that showed personnel on RAB and police helicopters shooting tear gas from launchers. “These launchers can look like rifles or shotguns from a distance, but the tear gas grenade leaves a distinctive white smoke trail when the launcher is fired,” it added.

The UN agency said that it has not been able to obtain any videos clearly showing shooting from rifles or shotguns from helicopters. However, it should be noted that the shooting incidents reported by witnesses all occurred during periods when the government had fully shut down mobile and broadband Internet, and circulation of footage on social media or websites was not possible.

Based on the information obtained, the OHCHR said that it could neither confirm nor exclude the shooting of rifles or shotguns from helicopters. It suggested that some victims who were hit seemingly from above by projectiles may have been in fact hit by rifles fired from elevated positions, by projectiles fired into the air and that then fell down, or by projectiles that ricocheted or fragmented before they hit the victim.

The OHCHR called for further investigation, with the full cooperation of RAB, Police and Army, including the personnel they deployed on helicopters.​

 

[Saif]

How Hasina government planned to thwart 'March to Dhaka' on 5 August

Two high-level meetings were held on 4 August under the leadership of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to prevent the 'March to Dhaka' program called by the anti-discrimination student movement on 5 August.

en.prothomalo.com

How Hasina government planned to thwart 'March to Dhaka' on 5 August
Prothom Alo Desk
Updated: 13 Feb 2025, 22: 20

Police shooting unarmed protesters in front of Jatrabari police station on 5 AugustTaken from OHCHR report

Two high-level meetings were held on 4 August under the leadership of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to prevent the 'March to Dhaka' program called by the anti-discrimination student movement on 5 August.

A plan to counter the march was made in these meetings.

This information has emerged in the fact-finding report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released on Wednesday.

The report depicts extrajudicial killings by the Awami League government in its final hours to suppress ‘March to Dhaka’ programme on 5 August. However, the OHCHR report names the programme as ‘March on Dhaka’.

The report states that public announcements by the protest leaders and information obtained by intelligence agencies gave Bangladesh’s political leadership the knowledge that the protest movement was planning a major protest march towards the centre of Dhaka on 5 August.

On the morning of 4 August, the then Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the National Security Council in which the chiefs of Army, Air Force, Navy, BGB, DGFI, NSI, Police and its Special Branch, and the Ministers of Home Affairs, Education and Foreign Affairs joined.

They discussed reimposing and enforcing a curfew to prevent the march.

"After the meeting, the Home Affairs Ministry declared that a strict curfew would continue indefinitely without breaks, while the Prime Minister issued a statement describing the protesters as terrorists appealing to countrymen to suppress these terrorists with a strong hand.”

A second meeting was held in the late evening of 4 August at the Prime Minister’s residence, attended by the Prime Minister herself, the Minister of Home Affairs, the heads of Army, Police, RAB, BGB and Ansar/VDP, the Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division and the Army’s Quartermaster General, among others.

"During the meeting, the Army Chief and other security officials reassured the Prime Minister that Dhaka could be held, according to senior officials."
A plan was agreed in which the Army and BGB would deploy alongside police to block protesters from accessing central Dhaka, if necessary by force. The Army and BGB were to block access routes into central Dhaka by deploying armoured vehicles and troops and not letting protesters pass, while the police was to “control mobs,” according to senior officials who participated in those meetings.

Consistent with these testimonies, at 12:55 am on 5 August, the former Director General of the Special Security Forces sent two consecutive WhatsApp messages to the Director-General of the BGB. According to hardcopies of those messages provided to OHCHR, the first message forwarded a broadcast message that appeared to be from protest leaders informing marchers on routes to take into central Dhaka. The second message appeared to contain a video outlining an order of battle, distinguishing a first and second line of defence, a third long-range unit, a backup unit and a rear guard, along with advice from protest leaders on how to circumvent these lines of defence.

"On the morning of 5 August, Army and BGB personnel largely stood by and did not implement their assigned roles in the plan. One senior official testified that the Army had not deployed the forces that it promised to deploy, while another noted that BGB let some 10,000-15,000 protesters per hour pass by entry points it was supposed to control."

A third senior official recounted how he knew that something was going wrong when he saw CCTV footage showing 500-600 protestors moving from Uttara towards central Dhaka without the Army stopping them. A fourth senior official personally called the Prime Minister to inform her that things were not going according to plan."

The OHCHR report states, police nevertheless still shot at protesters in many places with lethal ammunition, attempting to stop the “March on Dhaka” and prevent protesters from reaching the centre of the city. One police commander explained that “[t]he Army knew from early that day that Sheikh Hasina had fallen, but not the police. So the police were out there still defending the Government.”

OHCHR documented police shooting in several areas, all following the same pattern.

In Chankharpul, for example, Armed Police Battalion officers and other police shot lethal ammunition from rifles and used less-lethal weapons to stop protesters trying to march towards Shahbagh, with one witness 34 describing that “police were firing at anyone they saw.”

Police also fired metal shot and tear gas at protesters trying to cross Rampura bridge into Badda, injuring student protesters. Several gunshot victims from that area were admitted to hospital during the course of the morning.

A 12-year-old boy who was shot by police in Azampur said the police were “firing everywhere like rainfall” and described how he saw at least a dozen dead bodies in that location.

In Ashulia, police had initially set up checkpoints in an effort to deter and detain marchers. When more protesters showed up, the police used less-lethal weapons, at least initially, but then escalated to shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets. One witness was wounded by metal pellets when he tried to aid other injured protesters. Awami League supporters also shot firearms at protesters.

Around Savar bus stand, police shot at crowds of marchers, killing and injuring a large number. One journalist talked to several police officers from the area, who told him that senior officers had forced them to deploy, but that ordinary police did not want to cause more casualties.

Another witness to shooting in the area also saw the body of a boy who had been killed on 5 August later that day and told OHCHR that 5 August was “the happiest day for us [protesters], but the saddest for the boy’s mother.”

On the morning of 5 August, police and Ansar at the Jatrabari Police Station received orders to shoot at protesters to protect the station and its officers. They fired rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal ammunition from positions within and around the station at large crowds of protesters who had mobilized for the March on Dhaka and were gathering near the police station. Some protesters were throwing bricks at the police, according to officials deployed at the scene. Several protesters were killed, and scores injured. Among the victims was an autistic man who was hit by two bullets.
Army units deployed in the area briefly de-escalated the situation in the early afternoon, but then withdrew. Shortly after, police reinitiated confrontations by throwing a sound grenade at protesters outside the station gate and then storming out in formation while shooting their rifles and shotguns.

Witness testimony, corroborated by videos, established that police officers intentionally shot and killed several unarmed protesters at close range as they were seeking cover or fleeing, while police were also shooting generally towards the crowd.

On the afternoon of 5 August, as crowds of people began celebrating Sheikh Hasina’s departure, some police were still shooting at them with lethal ammunition. Among the victims were several young children.

In Uttara, a 6-year-old boy was shot dead when his parents brought him to a “victory march,” as confirmed by witness testimony and medical records. Videos and photos showed moments of jubilation when rumours of the Prime Minister's resignation spread. However, chaos ensued with the sound of grenades and gunfire, causing them to flee. The child was shot in the thigh and later died in the hospital from his injuries. The witness did not see who shot the child but described a chaotic scene with security forces and people who resembled Awami League supporters by their attire throwing sound grenades. There was an Armed Police Battalion station located nearby, and the witness described how the officers had taken positions on the south, east and west of the protest march. He also witnessed other people being injured and collapsing on the street, including another boy who was shot in the head.

In Mirpur, one of those shot by security forces at a celebratory protest was a 12-year-old boy, according to witness testimony and corroborating medical information.

Police men piled the dead bodies into a van and set fire to the vehicle in Ashulia on 5 August Taken from OHCHR report

On the afternoon of 5 August in Gazipur, a 14-year-old boy was deliberately maimed - shot in the right hand during a largely peaceful protest of 5,000 to 6,000 participants. Witnesses stated that protesters were unarmed and posed no serious threat. The situation escalated when security forces began firing without warning. The crowd, blocking roads near Ansar Gate, panicked and fled.

Forensic evidence shows that the boy was shot at close range with shotgun pellets. The shooter aimed to punish him for allegedly throwing stones, saying, "You won’t use this hand to throw stones again." The victim suffered severe damage to his right hand, with over 40 shotgun pellets embedded and significant bone and tissue damage.

Another incident occurred in Gazipur, where police officers apprehended an unarmed rickshaw driver and shot him dead at close range. The police dragged the body away and never returned it, leaving the family unable to bury and mourn their loved one. The police officer who shot the man was arrested in September. A family member pleaded with OHCHR: “I want justice, independent investigations and the return of [the] body.”

In Ashulia, the situation escalated in the afternoon, when protesters targeted the Ashulia Police Station. A large crowd surrounded the station and, despite repeated attempts by the police to retreat, continued to advance, throwing bricks and debris. In response, police fired indiscriminately, using military rifles loaded with lethal ammunition.

While the police attempted to clear a path for their exit, the gunfire was random and appeared more aimed at intimidating the crowd rather than specifically targeting violent individuals. This resulted in injuries and fatalities among both protesters and bystanders. A 16-year-old student was critically injured in the spine by a bullet fired at close range, paralyzing him. On the order of senior police officials, police later piled the dead bodies of shooting victims into a van and set fire to the vehicle in the apparent hope that the burning of the bodies would create the false impression that the victims had been killed by protesters.​

 

[Saif]

সাভার গণহত্যা: হাসিনা পালানোর পরের ৬ ঘণ্টা