Bangladesh court orders inquiry into Sheikh Hasina’s alleged role in grocer’s death
Former PM and others accused over actions of police who fired on protesters, killing shop owner crossing street.
A court in Bangladesh has ordered an investigation into the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s alleged role in the death of a grocery shop owner in the capital, Dhaka, during last month’s student-led protests.
The case filed by Bangladeshi citizen Amir Hamza against Hasina and six others was accepted by Dhaka’s chief metropolitan magistrates court after a hearing, Hamza’s lawyer, Anwarul Islam, said. The magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury ordered police to investigate the case, Islam added.
Crowds with Bangladesh flags gather around the prime minister’s official residence, with large numbers of them on the roof
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It was the first case filed against Hasina after a violent uprising that killed about 300 people, many of them college and university students. She fled to India on 5 August and has been sheltering in Delhi.
The other accused in the case include the general secretary of Hasina’s Awami League party, Obaidul Quader, the former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and senior police officials.
Hamza alleged the grocer, Abu Saeed, was killed on 19 July at about 4pm (10.00 GMT) when he was hit by a bullet while crossing the street in the Mohammadpur area of Dhaka, as police fired on students and other people demonstrating against quotas in government jobs.
The complainant blamed Hasina, who had called for strong action to quell the violence, for the police firing. Hamza said he was not related to Saeed but voluntarily approached the court because Saeed’s family did not have the finances to file the case.
“I am the first ordinary citizen who showed the courage to take this legal step against Sheikh Hasina for her crimes. I will see the case to an end,” Hamza told Reuters.
Hasina, who was prime minister for the last 15 years, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters, but later put out a statement – her first since fleeing the country – demanding an investigation into those responsible for the killings of students and others during the protests.
In the statement, posted on X by her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Hasina said she wanted the culprits to be “identified and punished”. Police weaponry was the cause of most deaths during the protests, according to police and hospital figures collected by AFP.
Hasina also appealed to her supporters to observe a national holiday that she had declared for Thursday to mark the 1975 assassination of her father, independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during a military coup. The politically charged holiday was cancelled by the new government on Tuesday.
Quader’s phone was switched off, while Kamal did not answer his phone when Reuters tried to reach him.
Nahid Islam, a Bangladeshi student leader who was instrumental in overthrowing Hasina and is now part of the interim government, recently said that the former prime minister must face trial for the killings during her term, including during the recent protests.
And on Tuesday, the interim government, led by 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, signalled it would not interfere with the investigation into Saeed’s death.
“We all know that the prime accused of the case … is not in the country,” environment minister Syeda Rizwana Hasan told journalists.
“The case will take its normal course,” she added. “Justice here in Bangladesh is pretty slow-paced… we can try to ensure that no delay takes place in the investigation.”
The student-led movement started with demonstrations against quotas in government jobs before spiralling into violent protests to oust Hasina. She plans to return home to Bangladesh when the caretaker government, headed by the Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, decides on holding elections, her son has said.
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