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14-08-2024
DHAKA: A murder investigation has been opened into Bangladesh’s ex-premier Sheikh Hasina over the police killing of a man during civil unrest.
Six other top figures in the previous government are also being investigated following weeks of deadly unrest in the capital Dhaka.
Mamun Mia, a lawyer who brought the case on behalf of a private citizen, said the court in Dhaka had ordered police to accept “the murder case against the accused persons”.
This is the first step in a criminal investigation under Bangladeshi law.
Hasina resigned and fled the country earlier this month, fleeing to neighboring India, as calls grew for her to stand down.
More than 400 people were killed in weeks of student demonstrations culminated in the demands against Hasina. Many of them were shot by the police, on her orders.
Businessman Amir Hamza applied to bring the murder case in July, after a local grocer Abu Saeed was shot in the head while crossing the road.
He told a court that on 19 July, students were holding a peaceful protest, alleging police had fired indiscriminately on the crowd, according to media.
Hamza said he was not related to Saeed but approached the court because the grocer’s family did not have the finances to file the case.
“I am the first ordinary citizen who showed the courage to take this legal step against Sheikh Hasina for her crimes. I will see the case to an end,” he told Reuters news agency.
Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury ordered the police to investigate the case, the first to be brought against Hasina since the protests started.
The former Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader is among those being investigated.
Hasina’s government, which was in power for 15 years, was accused of widespread human rights violations and dogged by allegations of rampant corruption.
The student protests began in early July, starting out as peaceful demands to scrap quotas in civil service jobs, before transforming into a wider movement which toppled the government.
Hasina urged police to clamp down hard on the protestors, referring to them as “not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation”.
The recently formed new government contains many of the protestors, and is helmed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Hasina will return to the country when elections are declared, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy has said.
The ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, will return to the country when elections are declared, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy says.
Hasina, who resigned and fled the country earlier this week following a massive unrest, is currently in India.
Bangladeshi media say more than 500 people were killed in weeks of demonstrations against Hasina. Many of them were shot by the police.
Thousands were injured in the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971.
“Absolutely, she will come [to Bangladesh],” Wazed tells media, saying his mother will return as and when the interim government decides to hold the polls.
The military-backed interim government, headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, was sworn in on Thursday along with 16 advisers.
Two of the student protest leaders are among the advisers.
Wazed is an information technology expert who now lives in the US. (Int’l News Desk)
