Bangladesh’s ousted PM Hasina faces murder charges

PTI, Aug 13, 2024, 5:29 PM IST

Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and six others, including two senior ministers of her cabinet and the sacked police chief, would face trial on murder charges, court officials said on Tuesday.

The murder case filed against 76-year-old Hasina is the first so far against her since she resigned and fled to India on August 5. She and six others over the death of a grocery shop owner during last month’s violent clashes that led to the fall of her government.

“In line with a case filed by a resident of (Dhaka’s) Mohammadpur area, Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury has asked police to register it as an FIR,” a court official said.

He said that six others who were named in the case are: Awami League general secretary and former road transport minister Obaidul Quader, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and sacked inspector general of police (IGP) Abdullah Al Mamun, Dhaka’s police commissioner Habibur Rahman, Additional IGP Harun-or-Rashid and additional joint commissioner Biplab Kumar.

While Hasina fled to India, the two ministers are believed to have secretly left the country hours before her resignation on August 5 while the whereabouts of the police officers remained unknown to the media.

According to court officials, the magistrate asked Mohammadpur police station to record the case. A police official preferring anonymity said it was unclear which agency would be tasked to investigate the case.

Home Affairs Adviser Brigadier General (retd.) Sakhawat Hossain speculated that 500 or more protestors and policemen were killed during the three weeks of violence which originated from a movement by Students Against Discrimination.

The case against Hasina and six others was lodged on charges of killing a grocery shop owner in the Mohammadpur area in police firing on July 19 during a street march in support of the students’ movement for reforms in a controversial quota system for government jobs.

The case was filed by a well-wisher of the grocery store owner Abu Sayed.

Besides, several unnamed high-ranking police officials and government officials were also accused in the case, according to the media reports.

Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 since the anti-quota protests first started in mid-July.

An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led government, and its Chief Adviser, 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, announced the portfolios of his 16-member council of advisors last week.

On Monday, seven political parties, including the Awami League’s arch-rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), met Yunus separately and said the interim government could take the time necessary to create a conducive environment for holding free and fair elections, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

“We have given this interim government the time required to create a proper environment for holding an election,” the report quoted BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

He said they did not discuss the election and that the BNP did not mention any specific time frame for the next election.

The BNP was extending its full support to all the activities of the interim government, he said.

Quoting sources, the report said that the party urged the Yunus to have all the cases against its leaders, including those against party chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman, withdrawn.

Former prime minister Zia, 79, was released from jail after Hasina’s ouster. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018.