Bangladesh tribunal charges senior politicians, ex-police chiefs
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal files crimes against humanity cases tied to student uprising violence and alleged staged police executions
DHAKA, Bangladesh (MNTV) — Prosecutors at Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday filed formal charges in two major cases alleging crimes against humanity, targeting senior political figures and former top police officials over killings spanning nearly a decade.
The first case names Rashed Khan Menon, president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh, and Qamrul Islam, a former food minister, for their alleged roles in killings and other grave abuses during the July 2024 student-led mass uprising, one of the deadliest protest movements in Bangladesh’s recent history.
Prosecutors accuse the two politicians of responsibility for violence carried out as security forces moved to suppress nationwide demonstrations led largely by students demanding political reforms and accountability.
The uprising was met with sweeping repression by security forces loyal to the government of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Human rights monitors and independent media documented the killing of more than 1400 people, many of them students, as police and allied forces used live ammunition, mass arrests, and enforced disappearances to crush protests across the country.
In a separate case, the tribunal charged 10 individuals, including multiple former heads of Bangladesh’s police force, over a 2016 operation in Gazipur in which seven young men were killed. Prosecutors allege the killings were falsely presented as an anti-militancy raid but were in fact pre-planned executions, amounting to crimes against humanity.
Those charged include former inspectors general of police AKM Shahidul Hoque and Mohammad Javed Patwary, as well as former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia.
Senior counter-terrorism and intelligence figures are also named, including former Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit chief Monirul Islam and former Detective Branch head Harun-or Rashid.
Legal analysts say the new charges signal an attempt to pursue responsibility at the highest political and security levels in Bangladesh, particularly over allegations involving police counter-terrorism units that have operated for years with limited transparency.
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