Bangladesh investigators say ousted PM behind deadly crackdown

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina masterminded a deadly crackdown on mass protests that prompted her ouster last year, prosecutors at a domestic war crimes tribunal said Monday.

Up to 1,400 people died in July 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the opposition, according to the United Nations.

Hasina lives in self-imposed exile in India, where she fled by helicopter, and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka over charges of crimes against humanity.

“The investigation team has found Sheikh Hasina culpable in at least five charges,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters.

“They have brought charges of abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising.”

Tajul Islam said the prosecution had submitted its first report to be presented at the court set to try Hasina and two of her aides — former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and ex-police chief Abdullah Al Mamun.

“Sheikh Hasina directly ordered law enforcement agencies and auxiliary forces aligned with her party to kill and maim, and to burn corpses and even people who were still alive at certain points,” he added.

The ICT was set up in 2009 by Hasina to investigate crimes committed during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971.

Investigators have collected video footage, audio clips, Hasina’s phone conversations, records of helicopter and drone movements as well as statements from victims of the crackdown as part of their probe.

Bangladesh’s interim government on Saturday banned Hasina’s party, the Awami League, pending the outcome of the trial.

The decision was taken to ensure the country’s “sovereignty and security” as well as the safety of the protesters, plaintiffs and witnesses of the tribunal, Asif Nazrul, a government advisor on law and justice, told reporters.

Bangladesh has requested India to extradite her but has not yet received a response.