According to BBC Eye’s verification of the audio of one of her phone conversations, then-prime leader Sheikh Hasina approved a lethal crackdown on student-led rallies in Bangladesh last year.
Hasina claims in the March audio release that she gave her security personnel permission to “use lethal weapons” against demonstrators and that “wherever they find [them], they will shoot.”
The audio will be used as key evidence by Bangladeshi prosecutors against Hasina, who is facing an absentee trial at a special tribunal for crimes against humanity. UN inspectors estimate that up to 1,400 people perished in the violence last summer. Hasina, who escaped to India, denies all of the accusations made against her. Unlawful intention” or “disproportionate response” were rejected by a representative for her Awami League party in the video.
The most important proof that Hasina directly authorised the shooting of anti-government protesters—tens of thousands of whom had taken to the streets by last summer—comes from the leaked recording of her chat with an unnamed senior government official.
Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years, was overthrown by a large-scale movement that started as protests against public service employment quotas for families of those who participated in the 1971 war of independence. Bangladesh has not witnessed such bloodshed since the 1971 war. On August 5, Hasina left by helicopter before demonstrators surrounded her Dhaka home, resulting in some of the deadliest incidents.
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