Sheikh Hasina ordered use of drones, helicopter, lethal weapons to kill

Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the law enforcement agencies to use drone to locate the protesters.

Following that Helicopters and lethal weapons were used with the intent to kill them (protesters).

Sheikh Hasina also mentioned about the order during a phone conversation with the then Dhaka South City Corporation (DNCC) mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.

Besides, a call record of her phone conversation with former information minister Hasanul Huq Inu was also played at the tribunal.

The International Crimes Tribunal‑1 has expressed this view in its verdict on the case against Sheikh Hasina and two other accused over killings and crimes against humanity during the mass uprising.

The tribunal stated in its verdict that the pen drives and CDs containing the conversations were submitted to the court. The conversations were examined at the CID’s forensic laboratory. Experts involved found the conversations to be genuine. It was stated that they were not generated by AI. The pendrives and CDs containing the conversations were played in the courtroom. After listening to these conversations, it appeared to the tribunal that they are authentic, not fabricated or artificially created.

On Monday, the first verdict was delivered in a case pertaining to crimes against humanity, which encompassed murder, committed during the recent mass uprising. The three-member Tribunal, chaired by Justice Golam Mortuza Mazumder, Chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-1, handed down the finding.

In its determination, the Tribunal convicted the deposed Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, and the former Home Minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, of the aforementioned crimes and consequently imposed the death sentence.

Another defendant, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, the former Inspector General of Police (IGP), received a concurrent custodial sentence of five years.

In the pronouncement of the verdict, the Tribunal asserted that Sheikh Hasina, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun jointly perpetrated the atrocities in collusion and collaboration, with the intent of killing the protesting students.

Furthermore, the evidence provided by Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun disclosed that a Core Committee had been constituted, which comprised the then home secretary Jahangir, an additional secretary, the heads of the special branch (SB) and the detective branch (DB), the director-general of Rapid Action Battalion, the commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), the director generals of BGB and Ansar, the Head of the NTMC, and the chiefs of DGFI and NSI.

After 19 July 2024, they held meetings every night at the residence of then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal. Instructions would come from Sheikh Hasina to the core committee. Mamun further said, “At one stage of the movement, it was decided to use drones to identify where the protesters would gather and to deploy helicopters and lethal weapons to control the movement.”

Sheikh Hasina gave the order to use lethal weapons, with additional DIG Joarder present at the scene. She sent this directive to use lethal weapons to police officers across the country.

Reviewing the evidence, the verdict states that the three accused jointly led operations against protesting students and the public as a joint criminal enterprise.

Following Sheikh Hasina’s orders, and under the supervision of Asaduzzaman Khan and Abdullah Al Mamun, law enforcers along with Awami League, Chhatra League and Jubo League activists subsequently attacked protesting students and citizens across the country, using helicopters and lethal weapons.

These operations resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,500 people, including six protesters at Chankharpul in Dhaka and another six in Ashulia.

In its verdict, the tribunal highlighted a conversation on 14 July last year between Sheikh Hasina and then vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Maksud Kamal. In the conversation, Sheikh Hasina said, “I have executed the Rajakars; now I will do the same to them [the protesters]. I will spare no one, I am telling you.”

She further said, “I am telling you, after today, they will be arrested, detained and action will be taken.”

The tribunal observed that these statements were crystal clear incitements by Sheikh Hasina, prompting her party workers and affiliated organisations, Chhatra League and Jubo League, to act. Her remarks provoked the protesters, and through them, she effectively ordered the killing and elimination of the demonstrators. The pendrives, CDs and transcripts containing these conversations were submitted as evidence to the tribunal.

Reviewing the events and circumstances, the tribunal said in its announced verdict that students of Dhaka University and other educational institutions began a movement on 1 July 2024, demanding reform of the quota system in government jobs, which continued until 5 August that year.

Instead of listening to the students and addressing their demands, then prime minister Sheikh Hasina undermined the movement and made derogatory remarks towards the students, referring to “Rajakars” — using abusive language in Bangla. She said, “The grandchildren of freedom fighters will not get jobs, but the grandchildren of Rajakars will.”

Following these insulting comments by the accused Sheikh Hasina, students, including female students, gathered in protest in front of the Raju Sculpture at Dhaka University, demanding that Sheikh Hasina retract her words and apologise.