Human rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) collected on-site information for two days after the attack on the leaders, activists and supporters of the local Awami League and its allied organisations at a rally of the National Citizens Party (NCP) in Gopalganj on July 16.
ASK has demanded a fair and impartial investigation, mentioning that serious human rights violations occurred in Gopalganj during the violence.
In addition, the attack on the NCPโs political rally has violated the right of citizens to assemble and gather.
A four-member delegation of ASK went to Gopalganj from July 21 to 22 to collect information. ASK representatives met with the families and relatives of the citizens who were killed, injured, detained, and arrested in the violence, as well as the authorities of the law enforcement agencies, local ordinary citizens, professionals, and prison and hospital authorities.
Later, the organisation sent its observation report to the media on Friday.
Complaint filed at ICC against 3 army officers, Yunus-Waker for Gopalganj massacre
Gopalganj Massacre: A mockery of justice by the Yunus regime
When the ASK representatives went to the Gopalganj Sadar police station to collect information, the officer-in-charge (OC) behaved disrespectfully. Meanwhile, the ASK delegation was unable to meet the army authorities in charge in Gopalganj despite trying to contact them.
The report said the ASK team had “identified at least two gross violations of constitutional rights.”
“The law enforcement agencies fired at civilians indiscriminately, and the right to hold a peaceful assembly was not upheld,” Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir, senior coordinator at ASK, told AFP.
Locals in Gopalganj told ASK that clashes erupted soon after NCP concluded its rally, with a crowd throwing bricks at the party members and security personnel. “Though some carried Molotov cocktails, they were not armed with firearms,” ASK said. Those killed were not part of the demonstrations, the report quoted family members as saying.
The report, however, does not explain the armyโs brutality, including the use of lethal weapons on the protesters and trampling a detainee to death, the death of a detainee in police custody, and the NCPโs provocations on social media ahead of the rally about the demolition of Bangabandhuโs mausoleum.
The Awami League, as well as people from different strata of the society, have condemned the brutal force used by the Bangladesh Army and the police, state-sponsored patronisation of the NCP, and the armyโs self-defense excuse.
A Bangladeshi expatriate filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court against three officers of the Bangladesh Army, who led the massacre against unarmed people in Gopalganj and the subsequent crackdown in the name of curfew.
The officers are the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 55th Infantry Division and Jessore Cantonment, Major General JM Emdadul Islam; the Brigade Commander, Brigadier General Md Mizanur Rahman; and Field Officer Lt Col ZM Mabruk.
Report: Yunus regime spent Tk8 crore for NCPโs โMarch to Gopalganjโ
Shamim Hasan Razzo: Why did NCP hire a terrorist for Gopalganj rally?
The other accused are the chief adviser of the unconstitutional interim government and Jamaat puppet, Prof Muhammad Yunus; army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman; Home Adviser Lt Gen (Retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury; and leaders of Yunusโ National Citizen Party (NCP), including its convener, Nahid Islam.
Of them, advisers Jahangir and Asif Mahmud were giving instructions to the army and the police from the monitoring room at the Police Headquarters.
Protests and curfew
The report said that eyewitnesses to the incident told ASK that NCP leaders attended the rally in the presence of a small number of supporters. Some offensive comments were made in the speech targeting Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League.
Immediately after these comments, the situation escalated, and later the clash took a terrible turn. In response to the NCP leaders’ speech, the โgeneral publicโ took to the streets, and at one stage, there was a bloody clash that lasted three hours.
The report said that since morning, local Awami League and their supporters had taken positions at various points in the city. They were carrying sticks and locally made weapons.
Pro-Yunus teachersโ network condemns rights violations in Gopalganj
GCDG documents gross violation of human rights in Gopalganj
ICRF writes to UN about Bangladesh Armyโs massacre in Gopalganj
There are allegations of arbitrary detention and arrest of citizens during the curfew and Section 144 since the night of July 16. There have even been allegations of extortion, threatening to arrest them. People were fleeing their homes in fear. A frightening situation prevails among the innocent and ordinary people.
There are allegations of arrests by law enforcement agencies even in areas of the district where there was no violence or untoward incident related to the rally.
โHarassment over autopsyโ
The ASK delegation has confirmed that the autopsy of only Ramzan Munshi, who died while undergoing treatment in Dhaka, has been completed. His post-mortem report mentions bullet marks on his body.
The ASK report said that the family members of the deceased Emon Talukder said that they were forced to bury him without an autopsy, as the hospital authorities pressed them to take the body away quickly at around 5 pm.
Emon had bullet marks on his body and injury marks on various parts of his body, including his face. Emon was not involved in any politics and worked in a โcrockeryโ shop.
The families of the deceased Ramzan Kazi, Dipto Saha and Sohel Mollah have also alleged that the hospital urged them to take the bodies for burial or cremation quickly, which is why they left for the area with the bodies.
When the news was published in the media on July 20, the police informed the other three families, except for Dipto Saha, that their family members should be present at the cemetery at 10am on July 21, the bodies would be exhumed from the graves, and an autopsy would be performed.
Later, on July 21, the bodies were exhumed from the graves, and an autopsy was performed at Sadar Hospital. A delegation of ASK was present on the spot during the exhumation and preservation process of the bodies of Ramzan Kazi and Emon.
The families consider this process to be a new form of harassment. The family members of the deceased have demanded proper justice.
False, wholesale cases
A total of eight cases have been filed over the Gopalganj incident till July 21, out of which ASK’s fact-finding team has received copies of six cases.
The report said that the number of accused in the cases is 5,400. Of these, 358 names have been mentioned in the list of accused. Among these accused, three are women, and 32 are from the minority Hindu community.
Three of the six cases are under the Anti-Terrorism Act, two under the Criminal Act, and one under the Special Powers Act.
As of July 21, the police have arrested 18 children in various cases. Many of them have been arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009. Family members have claimed that they have no involvement in the clashes.
Even though the army and police killed the five protesters, the ASK report does not question the filing of the false murder cases accusing the Awami League leaders and activists.
24 under treatment at the General Hospital
According to the ASK report, a total of 24 people were treated at the emergency department of the Gopalganj General Hospital in the clashes on July 16. Of these, 21 were civilians, two were policemen, and another was the driver of the UNO of Gopalganj Sadar.
Although it is not known exactly how many of the injured were shot, it has been confirmed that none of the two injured policemen and the UNO driver was shot.
Three of the injured were sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment.
A total of four people were brought dead to the emergency department of Gopalganj General Hospital since noon on July 16. However, it is not true that Dipto Saha was also declared โbrought dead.โ
The Superintendent of Police (SP) of Gopalganj told the ASK representatives that the police did not use any lethal weapons on July 16 but rather exercised maximum patience.
The attackers tried to block roads at various places since morning. At one stage, NCP leaders had to be brought to his office for security. Two APCs (armoured vehicles) of the army had to be deployed at my office for security. The law enforcement agencies tried to bring the situation under control.
He, however, did not comment on the torture of deceased Ramzan Kazi by the OC of Kotalipara police station and his team after his detention from the protests, which led to his death.
English