The Jamaat-controlled International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) has received the five formal charges pressed against former prime minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, her home minister and the police chief for mass killings of the anti-government protesters during the July riots.
Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam, who was a defense counsel during the trial of 1971 war criminals at the same tribunal, submitted the chargesheet on Sunday morning.
Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal have been staying in India since the August 5 changeover, while former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun is in custody.
The trio are blamed for ordering the law enforcement, the party, and its associated bodies to carry out actions that led to mass killings of over 1,500 persons, injuries to 25,000, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies, and the denial of medical treatment to the wounded.
Notably, the tribunal’s prosecution team has not considered the murder, arson, and looting in July-August and afterwards by the activists of the National Citizen Party (NCP), BNP, Jamaat-Shibir, Hefazat-e-Islam, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish and militant groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) and Jamaat-ut-Dawa, who have publicly admitted their direct involvement.
On Sunday, Sheikh Hasina and Kamal vehemently criticised the interim government, led by Western puppet Muhammad Yunus, for establishing mobocracy and filing politically motivated cases and concocted investigation reports.
In an interview, Kamal said the government is trying to suppress the Awami League and slander Sheikh Hasina. They are filing the cases and preparing the charges in a planned way and without following proper rules.
Jamaat-Shibir, militant groups and a section of the civil society working for the Western masters have captured power. Through the tribunal, the Jamaat is taking revenge for its defeat in the 1971 Liberation War. They have captured power and are taking preparations to hang the freedom fighters, he added.
In a message, the former premier said: โAnarchy, hooliganism, and terrorism have a limit. All our leaders and activists have to resist this.โ
According to media reports, over 359,000 people, mostly Awami League leaders and activists, have been arrested in 10 months. Elderly politicians are also arrested. Attacks are taking place in courts.
The Awami League says around 400-500 of their members have been killed in July-August. But all the crimes committed by the protesters have been awarded impunity by the Yunus-led government.
Sheikh Hasina said: โI removed the quota system in 2018. It was revived in a court order [on June 5, 2024]. Then we engaged with the protesters.
โPolice did not take action against the students till July 15. We gave them protection. But they started anarchy, torched government buildings, metrorail, the Mayor Hanif flyover, and the state TV stationโฆ They took to the streets with sharp weapons, sticks and firearms. They killed the police and hanged their bodies from the overbridge.
โIn his address in New York last year, Yunus himself said there was no leader in the movement, no leaders. We were also looking for a leader. He introduced a mastermind, Mahfuj Alam, and said the movement was a meticulously designed thing to overthrow the government.
โThey have continued the mob rule to date.โ
She said Yunus is serving his Western masters by compromising the countryโs sovereignty and plundering public money.
Sheikh Hasina is facing two other cases filed with the ICT-BDโone over her alleged involvement in enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during the Awami League rule, and the other over killings during the Hefazat-e-Islam rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel in 2013, when the radical Islamists attempted to thwart the war crimes trials and capture power through anarchy.
Mockery of justice
Earlier, the investigation agency of the tribunal submitted its report to the chief prosecutorโs office of Jamaat leader Tajul Islam on May 12. The report names Sheikh Hasina as the instigator of killings.
The same day, the government issued an executive order banning the Awami Leagueโs political activities until the party’s trial in the ICT-BD is completed.
The three-member tribunal is headed by its Chairman, Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mazumdar.
Tajul Islam was previously a leader of the pro-Jamaat AB Party. When Sheikh Hasina launched the tribunal proceedings to try the 1971 war criminals, mostly linked to Jamaat, Tajul was a defense lawyer.
Moreover, Tajul and Law Adviser Asif Nazrul have already declared that they will complete the trial at the earliest and that a death sentence will be announced against the former premier.
Due to the conflict of interest of Tajul Islamโs role and arranging a mockery of justice by filing false charges, this ICT-BD has already lost credibility at home and abroad.
โWe didnโt order police to killโ
In an interview with the Wall News, former minister Kamal said police took action in self-defence, to save peopleโs lives and properties. They can open fire as a last resort as per the law and the casualties occurred.
โPolice members tried to save their lives, save arms in the police station, and ensure security at the jails.
โWe did not need to give them orders to kill the protesters. The commanding officers do this. Our police showed restraint. They performed their duties.
โThey first warned the protesters through whistles, then put up barricades, lobbed tear gas shells, and used water cannons. They opened fire when the anarchists attacked the police and were torching properties.โ
He said: โThe intelligence reports did not indicate a foreign conspiracyโฆthe flow of money or the meticulous design. They failed or were part of the conspiracy.โ
Regarding the deaths of over 1,400 protesters, as mentioned by the OHCHR and the ICT-BD, Kamal said most of the deceased were non-students, who got engaged in the anti-government movement.
โThe reported death count of 1,400 is baseless. If you scrutinise the list, there would be those who were killed three years ago. The government puts the number at 834.
โThe time has come to take account of the number of deceased and how they were killed.โ
He said many Awami League and Chhatra League activists were also killed. Police members were targeted and killed in huge numbers. Their bodies were hung from the overbridges.
Some reports say the number of deceased police officers is over 3,100.
Kamal demanded a judicial inquiry commission to carry out a thorough investigation, as established by Sheikh Hasina after the July 16 deaths of six people in countrywide violence.
He criticised the government for abolishing the commission and awarding indemnity for the crimes. The police are registering false cases. The government has also barred the investigators from exhuming the bodies and performing autopsies.
Yunus supporters admit crimes
Student coordinators Hasib Al Islam, Arif Sohel, BNP and Khilafat Majlis leaders from Sirajganj said they killed the police and set fire to other facilities, including the metro rail.
Madrasa students and teachers were brought to the field during the attack on the police stations and prisons.
AB Partyโs Asaduzzaman Fuad told the media that hundreds of policemen were killed. Dismissed army member Shuvo Mehdi said they used weapons and grenades.
Adviser Brigadier (Retd) Sakhawat Hossain has said that the protesters used 7.62-grade weapons.
Militant Hizb ut-Tahrir said they were on the streets anonymously.
Islami Chhatra Shibir said they coordinated the movement across the country, provided food and water to the protesters, drafted the demands of the movement and deployed armed teams at 10 places in Dhaka before attacking Ganabhaban on August 5.
NCP leader Hasnat Abdullah took a picture with a V-sign after occupying Ganabhaban.
Another NCP leader Abdul Hannan Masud and Adviser Asif Mahmud said how Prof Ali Riaz and Badiul Alam Majumder, US embassy officials, anarchist YouTubers and journalists living abroad provided shelter, planning and funding.
Some student coordinators also revealed how 138 teenage gangs were armed and brought onto the streets.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump hinted at a deep state conspiracy in Bangladesh to overthrow the Awami League as he said USAID funds were used to engage civil society and the students, run campaigns on popular issues like human rights, inequality and corruption.
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