The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has started delivering its verdict today in the trial of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been facing charges of crimes against humanity for her government’s crackdown on last year’s student protests. According to a July 2025 report by Al Jazeera, she authorised the use of “lethal weapons” and issued “shoot-at-sight” orders against students during the height of the unrest.
‘Use lethal weapons…shoot them’
Leaked phone recordings, accessed by Al Jazeera’s investigative team, suggest Hasina instructed an ally to use “lethal weapons” against protesters.
“My instructions have already been given. I’ve issued an open order completely. Now they will use lethal weapons, shoot wherever they find them,” she said in one phone call, as per a report by Al Jazeera.
The 78-year-old reportedly added, “That has been instructed. I have stopped them so far … I was thinking about the students’ safety.”
The Awami League, however, denied these claims, telling Al Jazeera that Hasina never mentioned “lethal weapons” and never explicitly authorised their use.
“This [Hasina’s phone] recording is either cherry-picked, doctored or both,” the statement said.
In another recorded call, Hasina allegedly discussed using helicopters to control crowds.
“Wherever they notice any gathering, it’s from above – now it’s being done from above – it has already started in several places. It has begun. Some [protesters] have moved,” Al Jazeera quoted her as saying. In this particular phone call, she gave instructions to Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, the mayor of Dhaka South.
At the time, the security forces denied firing at protestors from the helicopter. However, a doctor at the Popular Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, Shabir Sharif, claimed that the shots “from a helicopter” targeted the hospital’s entrance, Al Jazeera further reported in the investigative piece. Not just this, he also added that doctors treated students, who were protesting, with unusually “huge bullet” wounds.
Hasina, in an audio message uploaded on the Awami League’s Facebook page, rejected the charges as “entirely false” and urged supporters not to worry, asserting that “this is just a matter of time”.
Although the report does not specify the type of bullets used, it quoted Sharif as saying that X-rays revealed “huge bullets” lodged inside the victims’ bodies.
“The bullets entered either the shoulder or the chest, and they all remained inside the body. We were receiving more of these types of patients at that time. When we looked at the X-rays, we were surprised because there were huge bullets,” Dr Sharif was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying.
Al Jazeera also reported that Hasina was aware her calls were being recorded. When warned not to discuss sensitive issues over the phone, she reportedly responded, “Yes, I know, I know, I know, I know, it is being recorded, no problem.”
About students protest in Bangladesh
The unrest in Bangladesh began as a peaceful student demonstration in June 2024, after the high court reinstated a contentious quota policy that set aside government jobs for descendants of 1971 war veterans. This was after the quota policy was struck down following mass student agitation in 2018.
Students argued the system disproportionately benefited those aligned with the ruling Awami League, as it had led the freedom movement, and undermined merit-based recruitment in the civil service. Tensions brewed on July 16 after police fatally shot student protester Abu Sayed in Rangpur.
Al Jazeera also cited a call in which Hasina’s adviser, Salman F Rahman, sought the postmortem report of Abu Sayed. Dr Rajibul Islam of Rangpur Medical College Hospital, the hospital where the postmortem was being conducted, alleged police forced him to alter the report. The pressure was to remove references to multiple bullet wounds and state instead that Sayed died from “injuries caused by stone-throwing”.
Later, Hasina, in a televised event, distributed financial assistance to the families of 40 students who were killed and assured them that justice would be delivered.
In early August 2024, student-led protests in Bangladesh escalated dramatically. On August 3, student groups called for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and announced a march to Dhaka on August 5.
On August 5, the protestors gathered near key government sites in Dhaka, including the Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, and eventually Ganabhaban – the official residence of the Prime Minister. Despite a heavy deployment of security forces, protesters broke through barricades near PMO, triggering violent confrontations and reports of live fire being used. By midday, crowds had entered the grounds of the prime minister’s residence and later the parliament complex.
Amid the chaos, army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman confirmed Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and that she had left the country. Hasina was flown to India on a Bangladesh Air Force aircraft, where Indian officials received her.
At the time, EAM S Jaishankar told the Parliament that she requested “refuge” on short notice. “At very short notice, she [Sheikh Hasina] requested approval to come for the moment to India.”
