• Former PM Hasina formally indicted
• Govt accused of overlooking more than 2,000 crimes committed against religious minorities
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s former police chief pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity committed during a crackdown on protests last year, while ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina was formally indicted, prosecutors said after the trial resumed Thursday.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations, when Hasina’s government attempted to crush a student-led uprising.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League.
Former inspector general of police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Mamun “pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity”, Muhammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at the ICT, told reporters.
Islam said Mamun has agreed to assist the court by acting as a witness, giving “all the knowledge he has regarding the crimes committed during the July-August uprising”.
The court has approved separate accommodation to ensure Mamun’s safety. The tribunal on Thursday also rejected defence lawyers’ request to have the charges against Hasina and her interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal dismissed.
Both Hasina and Kamal were formally indicted in the same case.
Amir Hossain, the state-appointed counsel for Hasina and Kamal, however, remained hopeful.
“The trial is at an initial stage, and there are several other phases,” he said.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India as the protests ended her 15-year rule. She has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka, where her trial in absentia opened on June 1. Hasina faces at least five charges at the ICT, including “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising”.
Prosecutors say that Hasina held overall command responsibility for the violence.
She was already convicted of contempt of court in a separate case on July 2, receiving a six-month sentence. Fugitive former minister Kamal is also believed to be in India.
Attacks on religious minorities
A rights group in Bangladesh accused the government on Thursday of overlooking more than 2,000 crimes committed against religious minorities in the country and excluding them from reforms.
The Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council has been voicing concern over targeted attacks on religious minorities since the fall of ousted former premier Sheikh Hasina last year.
“We have recorded 2,442 incidents from August 4 last year to June 30 this year, involving murders, rapes and gang rapes, vandalism of temples, homes, and businesses,” Monindra Kumar Nath, general secretary of the council, told a news conference.
The council alleged such attacks have continued even after the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus took charge of the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.
His administration has often dismissed the accusations, saying the crimes against minorities are politically motivated, the victims believed to have supported Hasina’s Awami League party in the past.
“Instead of giving due attention to our concerns, the government chose to label them as false, fabricated, and exaggerated,” Nath said, alleging the accused were “enjoying impunity”.
The unity council criticised the government for excluding religious minorities from any of the reform commissions tasked with proposing measures to end all forms of discrimination in the society.
Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2025
