Former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina charged with crimes against humanity

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been charged in the country’s International Crimes Tribunal with crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the protests against her government in July and August, the Dhaka Tribune reported on Sunday.

Hasina has been charged with having instigated mass killings during protests against her Awami League government.

Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam, who filed the charges before the tribunal, said that the violence against the protestors at the time was a “coordinated, widespread and systematic attack”, Al-Jazeera reported.

“The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising,” the prosecutor said.

On February 12, a United Nations report on the violence said that the Hasina government, the country’s security and intelligence services and “violent elements” associated with the Awami League party “systematically engaged in a range of serious human rights violations” during the agitation in July and August.

Of the 1,400 killed and thousands injured between July 1 and August 15, the vast majority were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces, the report said. Of these, 12% to 13% killed were children.

Hasina was ousted from power and fled to India on August 5 amid widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been the prime minister of Bangladesh for 16 years.

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