UN inquiry exposes Sheikh Hasina’s brutal crackdown on protesters
India’s support for Hasina’s regime makes it complicit in bloodshed: Observers
Geneva: A UN inquiry has revealed that the former government of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh orchestrated systematic attacks and killings of protesters in an attempt to retain power, with the report suggesting that these actions may constitute “crimes against humanity.”
According to Kashmir Media Service, before Sheikh Hasina was toppled in a student-led popular uprising last August, her government cracked down on protesters and others, including by “hundreds of extrajudicial killings”, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said.
The OHCHR said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, imprisonment and infliction of other inhumane acts have taken place”. These alleged crimes committed by the government, along with violent elements of Hasina’s Awami League party and the Bangladeshi security and intelligence services, were part of “a widespread and systematic attack against protesters and other civilians”, OHCHR’s report into the violence said.
Hasina, who fled into exile in neighbouring India, has already defied an arrest warrant to face trial in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity. Asked about Hasina’s personal culpability, UN rights chief Volker Turk told reporters that his office “found reasonable grounds to believe that indeed the top echelons of the previous government were aware, and in fact were involved in… very serious violations”.
Bangladesh’s interim leader Mohammed Yunus, who had asked the UN rights office to launch its fact-finding mission, welcomed the report, insisting that he wanted to transform Bangladesh into a country in which all its people can live in security and dignity.
The UN investigation examined events in Bangladesh between July 1 and August 15 last year, relying on hundreds of interviews with victims, witnesses and others, and on photos, videos and other documents. The team determined that Bangladeshi armed forces had supported Hasina’s government throughout the uprising.
OHCHR estimated that “as many as 1,400 people may have been killed” over the 45-day period, the vast majority of them “shot by Bangladesh’s security forces”. Children made up 12 to 13 percent of those killed, it said.
“The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former government to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition,” Turk said.
He pointed to findings of “hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrest and detention and torture and ill treatment”, decrying “a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings”.
As the UN inquiry has uncovered that Sheikh Hasina orchestrated a ruthless crackdown on protesters, resulting in widespread violence, critics highlight India’s open and unabashed support for Hasina’s oppressive regime, which has enabled these atrocities to persist, making India complicit in the bloodshed. They argue that the collusion between Hasina’s government and its foreign backers not only constitutes a national disgrace for Bangladesh but also represents a betrayal of human rights and justice on the global stage. Observers call on the international community to urgently demand accountability, holding both Hasina’s regime and its Indian supporters responsible for these horrific acts.
