A murder case was filed against Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday over the death of a college student during the quota reform protests in the country, the latest in the string of cases filed against her after her ouster.
The case was filed against Hasina, former education minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury Nowfel, and 32 others, including several Awami League leaders, in Chandgaon, bdnews24.Com portal reported. An additional 40 to 50 unidentified people have also been made accused in the case, it said.
This is the seventh case filed against Hasina following her ouster amid mass protests. Hasina, 76, fled to India on August 5 after she was forced to resign following a massive protest by students against a quota system in government jobs.
Mohammad Parvez, the uncle of the deceased student Tanvir Siddiqui, brought the charges at Chandgaon Police Station early on Saturday morning, the report quoted the station chief Jahedul Kabir as saying.
According to the case statement, Tanvir, a student at Government Ashekane Awlia Degree College, participated in the “shutdown” programme of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement on Aug 18. During the protest at Bahaddarhat kitchen market, unidentified attackers hurled bricks and stones and indiscriminate gunfire was opened on the students on the “orders and directions” of Hasina and Nowfel.
Tanvir was shot and later died in the hospital. The same incident led to the deaths of two others, including a Chattogram University student, at the same location, the report said.
Five other cases have been lodged against her in Dhaka in the last four days, four of which are murder cases, while one involves abduction and torture charges.
On Friday, Hasina and 99 other local leaders and activists of her Awami League party were sued in a case filed with Bogura Sadar Police Station over the murder of 35-year-old Selim Hossain, a resident of Palikanda village of Shibganj upazila, on August 4.
On August 4, the day before Hasina resigned and fled the country, Hossain joined students’ protest in Bogura’s Satmatha area. According to the complaint, Awami League (AL) leaders and activists attacked the protesters and hacked Hossain to death with sharp weapons.
Hossain’s brother alleged that AL men killed his brother after getting orders from Hasina and Quader. Meanwhile, former MP and ex-water resources minister, Ramesh Chandra Sen, has been arrested and sent to jail on Saturday in a case filed for hurling a crude bomb on students during the student movement on July 16.
Thakurgaon Chief Judicial Magistrate Court Judge Rajib Kumar Roy gave the order after Ramesh was produced before the court on Saturday afternoon. Sen also served in the Awami League as a presidium member, an advisory council member, and most recently, a member of the Central Election Board. He held the position of Minister of Water Resources from 2009 to 2014.
Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government, taking the death toll to 560 since the anti-quota protests first started in mid-July.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday started an investigation against the former premier and nine others on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity that took place from July 15 to August 5 during students’ mass movement against her government.
A complaint was filed on Wednesday with the investigation agency of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal against Hasina, Awami League general secretary and former road transport and bridges minister Quader, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and several other prominent figures within the party.
A team of UN experts will visit Bangladesh next week to investigate the killings of the protesters ahead of and in the aftermath of Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as the prime minister last week, it was announced on Thursday.
An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led regime, and 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been appointed as its Chief Adviser.
