Revisiting the UN Report on 2024 July Upsurge

The United Nations Human Rights Office or the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a fact-finding report in February this year, which found the intelligence agencies and security forces of the deposed Hasina regime in Bangladesh killing as many as 1,400 innocent civilians (of whom 12 to 13 per cent were children), and arbitrarily arresting or detaining over 11,700 protesters during the student-led mass movement that took place from 1 July to 5 August, resulting in Sheikh Hasina fleeing from the country.

Titled 'Human Rights Violations and Abuses Related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh', the report was compiled by a team of UN experts following a request made by the interim government of Bangladesh, asking the UN Human Rights Office to impartially investigate human rights violations and abuses alleged to have taken place during the mass movement. A team of human rights investigators, a forensics physician, and a weapons expert were deployed for a few months in Bangladesh for the purpose from September 2024.

While releasing the report, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk claimed: "The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former Government to hold on to power in the face of mass opposition. There are reasonable grounds to believe, hundreds of extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture were carried out with the knowledge, coordination, and direction of the political leadership and senior security officials as part of a strategy to suppress the protests." The protests unified millions of Bangladeshi men, women and children from diverse backgrounds, who demanded concrete socio-economic cum political reforms for ridding the country of entrenched disparities and discriminations in society. When the Hasina regime started to lose control over the situation, it used its security cum intelligence apparatuses as well as political cadres linked to the regime for brutally suppressing the protests through violent and cruel means in order to hold on to power.

The UN Human Rights Office found that the female protesters, who were at the forefront during the mass movement, were subjected to arbitrary arrests, torture, ill-treatment, attacks, and even sexual cum gender-based violence by the security forces; and in some cases, sexual assaults were perpetrated by pro-regime terrorists belonging to the Awami League. The investigation found patterns of deliberate and impermissible killings or maiming of protesters by the security forces, including incidents where protesters were shot at point-blank range. In one such incident, the 23-year-old student activist of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur Abu Sayed was shot and killed by shotgun pellets while leading protests on 16 July 2024, despite posing no threat as seen live on television screens.

The UN investigation found that the police and other security forces killed and maimed even child protesters with indiscriminate firing from rifles and shot-guns loaded with lethal ammunition, and subjected them to arrests, detention and torture under inhumane conditions. The security personnel even obstructed lifesaving medical care in hospitals and clinics, often arresting wounded protesters and intimidating the medical staff at those places to refrain from performing their duty. The UN report lamented that "Neither prosecutorial authorities, nor the judiciary took any meaningful action to curb acts and practices of arbitrary detention and torture, or to ensure that any officials perpetrating such acts were held accountable."

According to the report, the intelligence services - the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), National Security Intelligence (NSI), and the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) - and the specialised branches of the Police - Detective Branch (DB), Special Branch (SB), the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit, and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) directly engaged in perpetrating human rights violations for suppressing the protests. They used intelligences including those gathered through surveillance in violation of the right to privacy for carrying out the campaign of mass arbitrary arrests in late July. The DB routinely resorted to arbitrary arrests, detention and torture to extract information from detainees. The DB and DGFI colluded in the abductions and arbitrary detentions of student leaders, while DB, DGFI and NSI personnel hindered life-saving medical care, interrogated and arrested the injured protesters in hospitals, and intimidated medical personnel providing care.

The intelligence outfits were also part of a systematic and organised effort to conceal serious violations of human rights. The NTMC worked in close concert with Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to implement ministerial orders by enforcing strategically timed and targeted internet shutdowns to prevent protesters and the masses from using internet communication for informing and organising events, and to obstruct access to and dissemination of information about the ongoing violations of human rights. The DGFI, NSI, and RAB exerted pressure on the print and electronic media outlets not to report truthfully about the mass protests and their violent suppression by the Hasina regime. Besides, the DGFI joined hands with the Police for intimidating the victims and suspects, their family-members and lawyers in order to force them into silence. 

Based on reported deaths compiled by both public and private sources, and by combining those with other available evidences, the UN Human Rights Office estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed during the mass protests, the vast majority of whom were killed by military rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets commonly used by the security forces of Bangladesh. Thousands more suffered severe, often life-altering injuries. There were at least 13,529 injuries, and one hospital in Dhaka alone treated 736 patients with eye injuries. Based on information provided, over three-quarters (78 per cent) of deaths were caused by firearms, including military rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets. The violences were often incited by armed Awami League activists followed through by indiscriminate applications of force by the Police, RAB, and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel. Even helicopters were used to intimidate and terrorise protesters. More than 11,700 people were arrested and detained, according to information provided by the Police and RAB.

The UN report identified the underlying causes of human rights violations by the security forces of Bangladesh as follows: use of military rifles and metal pellet-loaded shotguns in public order management; outdated laws enabling the use of disproportionate force; militarisation of policing; politicisation of the security sector; institutionalised impunity and a politically compliant justice system; stifling of civic space and repressive legal framework; and structural discrimination cum grievances in economic governance.  

The report also put forward a number of recommendations with the objective of reforming the security and justice sectors of Bangladesh, abolishing some repressive laws and institutions that stifled civic and political dissent, and bringing about changes to the existing political system cum governance. Specific recommendations included: prohibit the use of shotgun pellets or other lethal ammunitions to disperse crowds and immediately cease equipping the police with metal pellet ammunition for public order management; reform public order management by emphasising less lethal tactics and de-escalatory approach; replace the Police Act 1861 and the Police Regulations with human rights-compliant laws and regulations; establish National Police Commission for fair, transparent, and merit-based police recruitment, promotion, transfer, and removal; establish an independent commission for investigating violations of laws, rules and regulations by the police; set up similar independent accountability cum justice mechanism for the Armed Forces and the BGB. 

While commenting on the report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk claimed: "The testimonies and evidence we gathered paint a disturbing picture of rampant State violence and targeted killings that are amongst the most serious violations of human rights, and which may also constitute international crimes. Accountability and justice are essential for national healing and for the future of Bangladesh". He further added that the best way forward for Bangladesh was to face the horrific wrongs committed during this period through a comprehensive process of truth-telling, healing, and accountability, taking measures to redress the legacies of serious human rights violations, and ensuring they can never happen again through a national accountability and reform process.   

Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed is a former Editor of Bangladesh Quarterly. hahmed1960@gmail.com