In UN Human Rights Office report, a sharp indictment of Sheikh Hasina govt | World News

The report, released in Geneva following a fact-finding inquiry conducted by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) at the request of the interim government in Dhaka, said “violent elements associated with the Awami League” acted along with the government and security agencies in these human rights violations.

The report further concluded that “human rights abuses were inflicted on some members of Bangladesh’s Hindu, Ahmadiyya Muslim and indigenous communities” during protests in July-August 2024 and their aftermath.

“The majority of cases concern vandalising, looting and burning of homes and business, but there were also attacks on religious places, aggravated physical assaults and at least one killing,” the report said.

After comparing the Bangladesh health ministry’s data with lists of reported deaths compiled by other sources, the OHCHR said there could have been as “many as 1,400 protest-related deaths”, including 13 women, between July 15 and August 5 last year.

Bangladesh’s interim government chief Muhammad Yunus expressed deep regret at the inquiry’s findings related to human rights abuses on the country’s minorities. According to an official statement, Yunus reiterated the interim government’s “commitment to respect and protect the rights of all Bangladeshis and to prosecute all perpetrators of violence”.

The interim government noted that OHCHR’s report “identifies extensive and grave human rights violations”, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and disproportionate use of force by Hasina’s government and elements associated with the Awami League.

Yunus reiterated the interim government’s commitment to uphold rule of law and called on members of the justice system, including police, prosecutors and judges, to do the same. He also pledged to reform the law enforcement and justice sectors to address “structural deficiencies” identified by the UN report.

“The reform of these institutions is crucial to Bangladesh’s transformation into a society where all its people can live in security and dignity,” Yunus said, calling on members of law enforcement and the judiciary to hold to account “their own peers and others who have broken the law and violated the human and civil rights”.

The UN report said that following the fall of Hasina’s government, widespread attacks were reported against Hindu homes, businesses and places of worship, especially in rural and “historically tense areas such as Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, and Dinajpur, but also in other places such as Sylhet, Khulna, and Rangpur”.

“This destruction was especially prevalent in areas perceived to be sympathetic to the Awami League, as Hindus have often been stereotypically associated with this political faction,” the report said. The violence often involved destruction of property, arson and physical threats, “compounded by insufficient police responses, suggesting systemic impunity and potential political motives”.

An analysis of information provided by Dhaka Medical College on 130 deaths showed more than 78% were caused by firearms, including military rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets. These weapons are used only by police, paramilitary and military forces, and not available to civilians in Bangladesh.

Those responsible for human rights abuses against Hindus, Ahmadiya Muslims and indigenous communities “acted with different and often overlapping motives, including political revenge against Awami League supporters among minorities, religious and ethnic discrimination, settlement of personal disputes, and localised communal conflict”, the report said.

“While some 100 arrests in relation to attacks on distinct religious and indigenous groups have reportedly been made, the perpetrators of many other acts of revenge violence and attacks on such groups still enjoy impunity,” the report added.

Some members, supporters and local leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami took part in some abuses, though the leadership of both parties condemned this violence. “OHCHR found no information showing that such human rights abuses were orchestrated at a national leadership level,” the report said.

The report provided recommendations to reform the security and justice sectors, abolish repressive laws and institutions designed to stifle civic and political dissent, and implement broader changes to the political system and economic governance. UN human rights chief Volker Turk called for a “comprehensive process of truth-telling, healing and accountability, and to redress the legacy of serious human rights violations”.