Two new murder cases have been filed against the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina and her former cabinet ministers for killing three people, out of which two were BNP activists, during the quota reform protest, as per media report.
The 76-year-old leader was the target of numerous lawsuits filed against her after she resigned and fled to India on August 5 in response to a large-scale student protest against a quota system in government jobs. The most recent complaints against her were filed in Dhaka courts on Friday.
With this, the tally of cases filed against Hasina has risen to 84, including 70 on murder charges, eight on allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide, three for alleged abduction, and three on other charges, The Daily Star newspaper reported. Matiur Rahman, an activist for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), filed a lawsuit in Kishoreganj on the August 4 over killings of two party workers Anjana, 28 and Zulkar Hossain, 38.
The case statement claims that leaders of the Awami League attacked a parade of BNP activists and members of the student movement using firearms, batons and sharp weapons. In the adjoining Khormaptri neighbourhood, a few BNP workers sought refuge in the home of a district Awami League leader. There, they were restrained by Hasina-led party activists before being set ablaze, which resulted in the deaths of Hossain and Anjana.
88 people were listed as accused in the case, including Hasina and Obaidul Quader, the former minister of road transport and bridges. A case has been filed in Munshiganj about the death of a 22-year-old man on August 4, who was shot dead during the student-led protest in the town’s Supermarket area.
Awami League leaders, activists from its student wing, Chhatra League, Hasina and Quader were among the 313 persons named in the case. “No one has been arrested in this case yet,” the report quoted Thander Khairul Hasan, additional superintendent of police at Munshiganj Sadar Circle, as saying.
Hasina was one of the 57 people charged in a separate case in Gazipur regarding the blindness of an 18-year-old college student. According to the court papers, the victim was shot in the right eye during an attack on demonstrators on the orders of Hasina and others.
After the Hasina government fell, violence broke out all over Bangladesh, killing over 230 people. This brings the total number of deaths from the massive student protests against a contentious government job quota system to over 600 since mid-July.
(with inputs from PTI)