Journalist Masuda Bhatti post-mortems OHCHR’s cooked report

Senior journalist Masuda Bhatti has slammed the OHCHR for its partisan report on the Bangladesh’s anti-government violence, saying that the UN body has presented ambiguous and partial information so that the US deep state-backed interim government can hang Awami League President and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“Why did the UN give this government a false report against Sheikh Hasina? The job of the UN institutions and the OHCHR was to monitor the human rights situation in Bangladesh and regularly verify the factual information as per their TOR and inform the people and the media.

“But they have practically ignored what has happened since August 15, 2024 and hundreds of people have been burned or beaten to death, many have been killed in prisons, thousands or millions of ordinary people and Awami League supporters have been detained in prisons without trial, torture and reprisals are ongoing, the interim government is not following important recommendations like national dialogue and not banning the party, yet the UN is silent. It has been almost 14 months and there is no protest. There is no discussion of any kind.”

She asked whether the UN have been silent like this in any other country. “Did they give such a report on the massacre in Gaza or the humanitarian disaster in Yemen? But why did they give such a terrible report on Bangladesh on the basis of which the UN hatched a plot to kill Sheikh Hasina and other Awami League leaders without trial.”

In her latest video, Masuda Bhatti said that in the context of Bangladesh, what Sheikh Hasina’s government did in July 2024 to protect the state from terrorists or to protect the state from extremists’ takeover is what any developed country would have done.

Masuda Bhatti was a commissioner of the Information Commission. She was removed from the position on January 25 this year.

Mentioning the riot in the UK at that time, she said: “The UK government took a tough stance to control that riot. If she thinks it is fair, Sheikh Hasina’s decisions should also be considered fair and that was necessary. So why should it be considered rule of law in one case or in the UK? And in the case of Bangladesh, it should be called repression? Why should Starmer’s action be called rule of law and in the case of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, repression or genocide? The UN has not yet answered this question.”

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Regarding the structure and purpose of the report, she said: “The report that the OHCHR published on February 12, 2025, is about the July-August 2024 movement. They claim that they have found extensive evidence of human rights violations in Bangladesh. But the entire process is actually questionable. They started working at the field level from September 16, 2024. They did not talk to anyone from the army or DGFI. Although that was the main condition of their TOR. Even the UN did not coordinate with the judicial inquiry committee formed by the Sheikh Hasina government.

“On the contrary, after the interim government led by Dr. Yunus came to power, they rushed to prepare the report after receiving their invitation and Dr. Yunus canceled the inquiry committee formed by Sheikh Hasina when he came to power. The report says that they have verified the credible sources of the pictures and videos. But in reality, only the damaged scenes of the protesters have been published.”

The report does not mention the attack on Bangabandhu Bhaban. There are no pictures of the burning of the metro rail, or the destruction of government buildings. Another important aspect is that they refused to give interviews to Islami Chhatra Shibir even though they talked to BNP and Jamaat.

Dhaka University Shibir President Abu Shadik Kayem, however, said in his Facebook post that he had accompanied the OHCHR fact-finding team on the ground.

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“We do not know the explanation why they did not give interviews. However, information about the involvement of members of that organization has been found in all domestic and foreign reports. Bangladeshis know it. It can be understood from the introduction part of the report that their focus was to blame the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina, accuse the state forces and hide the role of the protesters and the crimes of the protesters.”

Regarding the number of deaths and the errors in the information, Masuda Bhatti said that the OHCHR has claimed that 1,400 people were killed in the July-August movement but has failed to explain where this number came from.

According to the information of the Ministry of Health, 826 people were killed, according to the information of the NSI, 314 people were killed. Together, these two figures come to 1155 people or 1155. Still, they say 1400 without verification.

Moreover, the daily Prothom Alo has found that at least 52 of them were killed in other incidents unrelated to the anti-government protests.

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“They took a sample from the forensic reports of 130 deaths at Dhaka Medical College and assumed that all deaths were similar. It said that 78% of the deaths were caused by state weapons. But the issue of weapons coming from inside and outside the country, snipers, rifles and other firearms in the hands of the protesters has been completely left out.

“The weapons found in Mirpur and Dhanmondi or the confessions of the protesters themselves have all remained outside the UN radar. Why? A few examples like the Abu Sayed and Mir Mugdho murders seem to be the weakest part of their report.

“Although the forensic report says there was a head injury, they have shown it as a death by police firing. Again, Mir Mugdho’s family themselves have stated that he was probably killed by the protesters. But this contradictory information have not been verified at all in this report.

“In other words, this report has been prepared based on a game of numbers and partial evidence, which is not research but a predetermined verdict. You have decided one thing that you will give such a report and you have given that report.”

On the OHCHR’s bias and political views, Masuda Bhatti said that in one part of the report, it is said that Sheikh Hasina’s rule dominated the state apparatus and the economy. Corruption increased. But such comments coming to the UN report means the death of impartiality.

“The World Bank, WHO, UNDP, all UN agencies, praised Sheikh Hasina’s development model. Poverty had come down from 44 percent to 18 percent. Maternal and child mortality rates had decreased significantly. Bangladesh was ahead of all other countries in achieving the SDGs. The UN itself had once called her a role model of development. The same UN or its agency came in 2024 and made her a symbol of oppression, a genocidal murderer. Tell me how this is possible.”

She also slammed the OHCHR for spreading a distorted statement of Sheikh Hasina. It proves that this report was entirely prepared for political purposes.

The report also gave minimum information about the role of BNP and Jamaat in the anti-government protests.

“Their workers have attacked the houses of minorities. They have killed Awami League workers. Clear evidence of all this has been ignored in this report. And later we know that now the biting has started as to whose role was the most terrible in the July terror. Who killed how many people? BNP says that their student organization Chhatra Dal killed so many people, Jubo Dal killed so many people.

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“And the Islami Chhatra Shibir claims that they have dismissed the Sheikh Hasina government. The report also omits the news of the closeness of organizations like Islami Chhatra Shibir, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Nothing has been mentioned about these. And the closeness of the UN to the Yunus government has repeatedly been raised throughout the report, as if one side has been made a criminal to give political moral legitimacy to the other.”

On the role of the army and the UN’s intervention, she said that the report mentions that the UN had informed the Bangladeshi army that members involved in human rights violations would be removed from the peacekeeping force. As a result, the army hesitated to open fire.

“This is a direct interference in the internal security policy of a country and is against the UN Charter. When this question was raised on BBC’s Heart Talk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, was clearly criticized for making such a decision outside his jurisdiction.

“This shows that the UN not only did not report but also exerted some kind of political pressure. The result was that the army retreated, and an administrative stalemate was created, and these extremist terrorists jumped in with all their might and killed people and killed the police and hung them upside down. Some 3,000 policemen were killed in this entire movement and there is no mention of this in the entire report.”

She said that most of the 110 pages of the report are filled with accusations against the law enforcement agencies. “But there is no detailed analysis of the killings of Awami League workers, police and ordinary people. The party provided information about the killing of 58 Awami League workers. But OHCHR says that it could not be verified.

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“They even have no comment on the torture of lawyers in the court of the murder of journalists or the horrors of mob violence. The appointment of a former lawyer for war criminals in the International Crimes Tribunal as the prosecutor. They hinted at this but did not say why in the recommendation that it is questionable. The criticism of the immunity order is very mild. It means that in this whole incident, those who killed the police and killed people have been given immunity. As if they are protecting the criminals themselves. This is the weakest part of this entire report.”

She lamented that the OHCHR did not investigate the allegations of attacks against the religious minorities. “Attacks on religious minorities, arson at Bangabandhu Bhaban, breaking the jail to free prisoners from Narsingdi jail, killing of pregnant policewoman in Sirajganj, these horrific incidents are not mentioned in the report, yet they have made recommendations like abolishing RAB or suspending the death penalty.

“As if their goal is to maintain chaos, not chaos in Bangladesh, there is no mention of the killing of Awami League workers, security of lawyers, protection of minorities, suppression of mob violence, cancellation of immunity orders, etc.”

Masuda Bhatti said that the OHCHR report is not only flawed but also terribly dangerous. It is misleading in the name of information and bias in the name of impartiality. They have unilaterally shown the steps of Sheikh Hasina’s government as a policy of repression. Yet if the same steps were taken by the UK or France, they would legitimize it as the application of the law.

“If a government tries to protect its state from militants and extremists, it is its responsibility. Sheikh Hasina did that. But the UN has basically created a moral justification for the extremists by showing it as a crime. It has morally legitimized them. This report is not just wrong. It will remain in history as a document where an international organization has destabilized a state due to its own political bias.

“It has paved the way for making it a failed state. If the UN were truly impartial, they would have published reports on the killings in Gaza or Yemen. They have done so, but those reports are not significant. So why did they give such a report about Bangladesh? Because Sheikh Hasina was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. And maybe that is her crime and they have handed over this UN report as evidence to a terrorist group to punish this crime.

“The UN has handed over such a report to such a dangerous group, based on which the illegal government of Dr. Yunus has made all the arrangements to hang Sheikh Hasina and the leaders and activists of the Awami League. The UN itself has played the role of a criminal by giving such a report.

“You may not believe this today. You may not be taking it into account today. But one day in history, the United Nations will have to face accountability for this. Already, many human rights organizations and even many researchers have raised the question of why the United Nations gave such a report? The report is flawed and the report is flawed and will be used as evidence to hang a political leader, a former Prime Minister of a country and the leaders of his party. Protests need to start from everywhere. We have to raise this question with the United Nations whenever we can.”