Unlawful use of force against protesters must end immediately in Bangladesh: Amnesty

International human rights organisation Amnesty International has urged the government to immediately stop the unlawful use of excessive force against protestors.

The United Kingdom based organisation said this in a report published on its website on Friday after verifying evidence of reports of violent attacks against the protestors during the sit-in programme of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on 29 July.

The report said that the Amnesty International spoke to multiple eye witnesses who have said that the protests were largely peaceful prior to the police attacking them.

The report further said that the protest, which called for a caretaker government to be appointed before the elections in January 2024, was held at various entry points to Dhaka. The protests ended with violent clashes with the police.

The interim regional director for South Asia at Amnesty International Smriti Singh said, “The videos and images that Amnesty International has verified shed light on the human rights violations by the Bangladeshi authorities. We call on the Government of Bangladesh to guarantee strict adherence to the law by the law enforcement agencies, as well as full respect for the people’s right to exercise their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, in order to avoid further harm to people’s physical integrity and possible escalation of this crisis.”

In the report, Amnesty International claimed that its researchers and crisis evidence lab reviewed 56 photos and 18 videos from the protests, and the organisation also collected nine eyewitness testimonies to corroborate the findings.

In one of the videos that were reviewed, showed a crowd of people running from tear gas at the Institute of Child and Mother Health Hospital in Mutuail, Dhaka. At least five of them appear to be women. The video was filmed within the ground of the hospital, right at the entrance of one of its buildings.

Amnesty said that tear gas should not be deployed near or around a hospital. According to the United Nations guidelines on the use of less lethal weapons, police should minimise the incidental impact of the use of force on susceptible people, including older people, children, pregnant women and people suffering from illnesses, who may have difficulty escaping affected areas.

Smriti Singh said, “Police should not use tear gas, rubber bullets on peaceful protesters. The fact that the Bangladeshi police is resorting to using tear gas inside a hospital reveals their alarming disregard for international law. The police should always bear in mind the diversity of those participating in a public assembly and their varying means of escaping or avoiding exposure to tear gas.”