The Investigation Agency of the International Crimes Tribunal on Monday submitted its investigation report against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun over their alleged roles in committing atrocities during the 2024 July-August mass uprising.
This is the first-ever probe report against Hasina for her role during the mass uprising when over 1,500 people were killed and over 25,000 others sustained bullet injuries. The investigation agency submitted the report to the office of the ICT chief prosecutor.
The tribunal鈥檚 chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam at a press briefing at the tribunal鈥檚 temporary courtroom on Monday said that the investigators accused Hasina, also the president of the Awami League, of five counts of crimes against humanity including abetment, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent crimes against humanity committed during the student-led uprising.
Tajul said that the investigators made Sheikh Hasina as the prime accused, instigator and superior commander for masterminding, instigating, and ordering the atrocities between July 1, 2024 and August 5, 2024, the day when she was ousted from power and fled to India for shelter.聽
鈥楾his is the first investigation report against her, despite her name being mentioned in hundreds of cases relating to enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other alleged crimes during her 15 years in power,鈥� said Tajul.
He expected that a formal charge sheet against Hasina and two of her associates would be submitted to the ICT soon as the prosecution would need some time to scrutinise the probe report.
The probe report against Hasina and two of her associates was submitted just two days after the government had amended the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973, granting the ICT authority to ban any political party found involved in offences under the law. The government on Saturday night also banned all activities of the Awami League until the trial of the party and its leaders by the ICT.
This move followed the promulgation of the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, which introduced provisions to ban individuals or entities for acts of terrorism or crimes against humanity.
Tajul, however, declined to disclose specific details of the investigation reports or the evidence gathered against former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and ex-IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun.
Mamun is now in jail but Asaduzzaman is still in hiding.
Tajul said that the investigation against Sheikh Hasina was initiated following a formal complaint lodged on August 14, 2024.
The Investigation Agency on October 14, 2024 assigned an officer to probe the complaint, he said.
The agency鈥檚 deputy director and an additional superintendent of police, Md Alamgir Hossain, submitted the report to the chief prosecutor after probing for nearly seven months.
The report, according to Tajul, deals with allegations of grave offences including the killing of protesters, shooting incidents, and the concealment of victims鈥� bodies by setting fire to them.聽 聽
Tajul said that the submitted evidence includes video footage, newspaper clippings, and recordings of Hasina鈥檚 public statements, particularly a live press briefing on July 14, 2024, where she allegedly made inflammatory remarks against protesters.
Tajul said that the investigators found evidence indicating that Sheikh Hasina had instructed doctors not to treat victims of the mass uprising and had barred post-mortem examinations of the deceased.
He said that the physicians who disobeyed the order and treated the injured protesters, as well as attendants, survivors, and families of the deceased, were listed as prosecution witnesses.
In addition to eyewitness accounts, the recovered bullets from victims鈥� bodies, as well as helicopter crews and passengers allegedly involved during the incidents, have been cited as evidence, Tajul added.
The investigation also found indications that arson attacks on Key Point Installations were carried out by the then ruling party affiliates, but the blame was strategically shifted onto peaceful protesters, he claimed.
鈥楽he is accused of inciting and directing state forces including law enforcement agencies, the then ruling party activists and affiliated organisations to attack, kill, and injure unarmed demonstrators,鈥� he said.
Two of the charges specifically related to abetment and instigation through her public statements, which, according to prosecutors, directly contributed to the widespread violence.
The chief prosecutor said that although the killings amounted to 鈥榤ass murder鈥�, they did not qualify as genocide under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act.
鈥楽heikh Hasina has been held responsible under the doctrine of superior command responsibility for failing to prevent the killings, and in some cases, directly ordering them,鈥� Tajul added.
The prosecution team, comprising 13 colleagues, and several members of the investigation agency were present at the press briefing.
Tajul said that the probe report also referred to a report released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva in February, accusing Sheikh Hasina, of ordering security forces to kill protesters and hide their bodies to quell the student-led protests in July 2024.
The report said that the government of Sheikh Hasina 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.
鈥極n the evening of July 18, the then home affairs minister chaired a meeting of the 鈥淐ore Committee,鈥� attended by the heads of Police, RAB and BGB and intelligence leaders. At the meeting, the minister told the BGB commander, in front of the other senior security sector leaders, to order use of lethal force much more readily, as one of the meeting participants related to OHCHR,鈥� it said.
鈥楽enior official testimony also indicated that, in a meeting held the next day, the prime minister herself told security force officials to kill protesters to quell the protests and specifically demanded to 鈥渁rrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies鈥�, it added.
鈥楾his testimony is also consistent with Awami League general secretary and then government minister Obaidul Quader telling reporters on July 19 that security forces had been given orders to 鈥渟hoot on sight,鈥� an instruction manifestly incompatible with international human rights standards,鈥� it said.
To remain in power, the Hasina government tried systematically to suppress these protests with increasingly violent means, the investigation also revealed.
鈥楾he brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former government to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition,鈥� said UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk in a statement on the occasion.
鈥楾here are reasonable grounds to believe hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture, were carried out with the knowledge, coordination and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests,鈥� he added.
