Rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra on Friday said that gross human rights violations took place during and after the violence between members of the security forces and leaders and activists of the Awami Leage in Gopalganj on July 16.
The rights body in a report also called for an independent and impartial investigation into the incidents.
The violence left five people dead and scores injured.
The human rights violations include indiscriminate firing by the law enforcement and security agencies during the violence, arresting minors, and harassing innocent people, the ASK said in its preliminary report after a field investigation conducted on July 21 and July 22 by a four-member team in Gopalganj.聽
It said that the organisation received allegations of taking money by the members of the law enforcement agencies, threatening to arrest individuals in Gopalganj.
The report said that the attackers, armed with locally made weapons, threw crude bombs and brickbats targeting the law enforcement agencies, but did not use any firearms.
It said that the members of the law enforcement agencies opened fire indiscriminately.
The report documented accounts from witnesses, injured victims, members of the families of the deceased, and officials of several law enforcement agencies and the Bangladesh Army.
According to the ASK report, mass arrests were carried out following the violence.
Families of the deceased alleged that the authorities created pressure on them to take away four bodies hurriedly for the funeral without any autopsy.
No autopsy was conducted on the bodies of Dipta Saha, 25, Ramjan Kazi, 18, Emon Talukder, 17, and Sohel Molla, 32, immediately after their deaths. Autopsy was conducted on the body of Ramjan Munshi, 32, at Dhaka Medical College.
The inquest report shows that Ramjan sustained bullet injuries.聽聽聽
The families of the deceased people alleged that the police did not contact with them to file cases, the report said.
Denying the allegations, Gopalganj superintendent of police Md Mizanur Rahman said that they asked the families to file cases but the families did not respond to the police.
The ASK report revealed that at least 18 children were arrested after the incident till July 21 and many of them were accused in Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009.
Their families claimed that the children had no involvement with the July 16 incident.
The ASK, quoting Gopalganj District Jail superintendent Tania Zaman and assistant inspector general (prison) Dewan Mohammad Tariqul Islam, said that the 18 arrested children were sent to Jashore Child Development Centre as per the court order.
Gopalganj SP Mizanur said that they had arrested all minors after analysing CCTV footages and they were aged between 16 and 17.
