Earlier this week Shuprova Tasneem read in bdnews that her father had been charged with abetting murder in a case she had never heard of.
Her father, the famous actor and former Awami League MP Asaduzzaman Noor, has been in prison for over two years. He had been arrested, or “shown arrested”, in a series of murder cases, most relating to killings during the July 2024 uprising. Like so many of these cases, each was based on a real death but named dozens, sometimes hundreds, of Awami League figures as accused, with nothing to link them to the crime other than their political position.
Shuprova knew nothing of any Badda case; it was not one in which her father had been shown arrested. Yet according to news reports, he had been named not just in a First Information Report but in a charge sheet, accused of “abetting” the murder of Emdadul Haque, a private car driver killed in Badda on 20 July 2024.
The investigating officer told the online portal: “The charge sheet has been submitted to the court. Those against whom allegations were found have been made accused. And for those against whom the allegations were not proven, discharge has been recommended. What happens next is for the court to decide.”
Yet the 27-page charge sheet contains no evidence that could justify Noor’s inclusion. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that politics here has been decisive: that police are charging former Awami League MPs, initially named in FIRs, simply because of their position in the party, regardless of the evidence.
The only allegation against Noor in the charge sheet is that “His followers attacked the procession of the quota reform students on the day of the incident, thereby committing the offence in this case.”
Yet the charge sheet does not say which of the 29 Awami League activists it places at the scene were supposedly his followers.
Noor was not an MP for Dhaka but in Nilphamari, a district some seven hours’ drive from the capital. If he has “followers” in the sense the charge sheet implies, they are in Nilphamari. The 29 activists named in the Badda charge sheet, by contrast, are mostly linked to Badda or neighbouring wards of Dhaka. It should be noted that no one was killed in Nilphamari – where Noor’s constituency is located - during the protests.
The only allegation against Noor in the charge sheet is that “His followers attacked the procession of the quota reform students on the day of the incident, thereby committing the offence in this case.” Yet the charge sheet does not say which of the 29 Awami League activists it places at the scene were supposedly his followers.
Nor does the charge sheet say how Noor is supposed to have “abetted” anyone – assuming that there were any of his followers present. To sustain that allegation, police would need evidence that he instigated the crime, assisted it in some other way, or was party to a conspiracy.
The charge sheet does not even hint at such evidence. It cites six videos: Sheikh Hasina’s press conference of 14 July 2024; statements by Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and information minister Mohammad Ali Arafat; and speeches by Jahangir Kabir Nanak, a former member of the Awami League presidium, and Saddam Hussain, former president of the Bangladesh Chhatra League.
None of the videos are given by Noor and none feature or mention him.
The press cuttings cited in the charge sheet have nothing to do with Noor either. Nor does any other evidence mentioned in the charge sheet link him to the location, to those said to be at the scene, to the shooting, or to anything else that happened that day.
The investigating officer states in the charge sheet that he found “no direct or indirect evidence of any kind” against 67 people named in the original FIR, and they were left out of the charge sheet. It is hard to see how the investigation officer concluded that Noor did not belong among them, particularly as those he did exonerate include the general secretary of the Badda thana Awami League and two Awami League councillors for wards 37 and 39 in Badda. This is not to suggest that these men should have been charged - but it is rather remarkable that an MP from Nilphamari has been charged, without any evidence, while members of the local party leadership in Badda have not.
This article has focused on Asaduzzaman Noor, but the same absence of any connection to the murder appears to apply to many of the other 15 accused of abetting the offence. It is also striking that the charge sheet cites no video or CCTV footage from Badda that day that might corroborate whether any of the 29 activists it places at the scene were actually there. There was also no post-mortem done, no ballistic evidence, no weapon recovered, and no hospital record from AMZ hospital where he was initially taken.
The increasing number of charge sheets for murder marks a new stage in the criminal justice system’s deeply arbitrary approach to accountability for the July killings, which has so far been concentrated at the International Crimes Tribunal. There are clearly some Awami League politicians and activists against whom there is substantial evidence that justifies prosecution – whether for murder or crimes against humanity.
But they have been swept up with a far larger number of party loyalists and supporters against whom there is no meaningful evidence to justify detention, let alone prosecution. A highly partisan and politicised criminal justice system, now with this BNP government’s backing, is treating them all alike, and failing to release those against whom there was never any basis for arrest let alone prosecution.
This charge sheet appears to be just another tactic of keeping accused Awami League politicians and activists detained in prison for longer – as they await trial, something that will likely take many years to complete, with no hope of bail.
Unless corrected, this systematic and organised failure of “transitional justice” will be more than a stain on Bangladesh’s reputation. It will almost certainly one day boomerang on those in power who let it happen.
*David Bergman is a journalistnn
Facebook account: david.bergman.77377
#The views expressed here are the author's own.