The political leadership ordered the excessive use of police force during the July Uprising, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the world's most respected human rights group, said in a report released on January 27.
"Multiple police officers indicated that they believed that directives to use excessive force during the Uprising came from political leadership," the report said.
A HRW delegation, led by Elaine Pearson, Asia Director, on January 28, handed over the 50-page report titled "After the Monsoon Revolution A Roadmap to Lasting Security Sector Reform in Bangladesh" to Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus.
In an interview to HRW, a police officer said, "I believe that during the unrest, the role of the police was determined more by political leaders than by the officers in the field."
One police officer told Human Rights Watch, "The police also shot at onlookers observing the scene from their homes, intending to create fear and send a message that people should not watch what was happening around them."
Police officers described receiving both explicit and implicit orders throughout the protests to use lethal force, the report said.
One officer explained, "Senior officers ordered us to be strict and not to spare any criminals spreading anarchy."
They didn't explicitly use the word "fire," but their instructions were clear: Apply the highest force, do whatever you think is necessary to control the situation, take a hardline approach, the report said.
The same officer also described witnessing more explicit directions.
He said that senior officers from Dhaka Metropolitan Police Headquarters would watch live CCTV footage and direct officers on the ground to shoot like "they were ordering someone to shoot in a video game."
He said that as he understood it, the home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, and the inspector general of police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, gave directions to the Dhaka metropolitan police commissioner, Habibur Rahman, who instructed the deputy commissioners.
This hierarchy of command is consistent with Bangladesh's police structure and reporting lines leading up to the home minister, the HRW report said.
A video in August showed a police officer in Dhaka defending police actions and telling Khan about the protesters' persistence: "We shoot one dead, or we wound one, and that is the only one that falls. The rest don't budge, sir."
On July 26, 2024, six coordinators of the student movement were abducted by plain clothes police after they went to a hospital in Dhaka to treat injuries sustained because of excessive force by police or attacks from Awami League supporters, the report said.
The six were held in incommunicado detention for a week and were "reportedly forced to issue a video statement announcing the end of the protest movement" before they were released on August 1, it said.
On August 5, Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.
In some cases, police also fuelled the post-August 5 chaos and violence, according to the HRW.
"For instance, on August 5, in Ashulia, police set fire to vehicles carrying dead and injured protesters. At least one person, according to an eyewitness, was burned alive in handcuffs," it said.
Razia Begum(55), who witnessed the events said, "This was the first time in my life that I saw innocent people burned alive this way."
She said that when neighbors saw the flames they ran to put out the fire but police turned on them and began shooting.
"The roads were covered with blood," said Razia.
"People were fatally shot directly in their bodies, not in their legs," he said.
BSS
Bd-Pratidin English/ARK
