Sheikh Hasina, the former Bangladeshi prime minister, recorded her secret phone call recordings, which Al Jazeera accessed, revealing that she “issued an open order” last year to “use lethal weapons” on students who were protesting her government’s policies and shooting “wherever they find them.
After weeks of bloody protests and brutal government action, Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh for 15 years, resigned from office and fled to India, according to the country’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT).
The callers were identified using voice matching, and the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit (I-Unit) performed the analysis of the recordings to look for AI manipulation.
Hasina claimed to have ordered her security forces to use lethal force in a call made on July 18 by the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC).
“I already received my instructions. I completely canceled my open order. They will now use lethal force and target any spot that comes across them,” she said. I have yet to stop them because I was thinking about the safety of the students.
The former prime minister discusses using helicopters to thwart demonstrations in a later conversation with Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, the mayor of Dhaka South and a Hasina ally.
“Wherever they notice any gathering, it is from above; it is now being carried out from above; it has already started in a number of places. It has already started. Some [protesters] have “moved””.
Although Bangladeshi security forces at the time had denied air protesters’ firing, Shabir Sharif, an accident and emergency physician at the Popular Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, claimed shots were fired from a helicopter “to the front of our hospital entrance.”
He added that doctors treated unremarkable student protesters who received bullet wounds.
The bullets did not leave the body, but they did, either, into the chest or the shoulder. At the time, he claimed, “we were taking more of these kinds of patients.” We were surprised when we examined the X-rays because they contained large bullets. What kind of bullets were used, Al Jazeera is unable to confirm.
The ICT, which has charged Hasina, her ministers, and security officials with crimes against humanity, may use the prosecution’s summonses as evidence in court. The trial is scheduled to begin in August, after Hasina and two other officials were charged on July 10.
These conversations were captured on NTMC, Hasina’s surveillance network. Prior to this, the NTMC was accused of spying on Hasina’s political allies as well as opposition figures.
The former prime minister was aware that she was being detained, according to Tajul Islam, the ICT’s chief prosecutor.
The opposing side might say that we [should not] discuss this over the phone in some cases. The prime minister responded, “Yes, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, it is being recorded, no problem.”
She has dug a very large ditch for people,” she said. She is now in the ditch, according to Islam.
After the high court reinstated an unpopular quota system that reserved state jobs for veterans who served in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence, peaceful student protests broke out in June 2024. Many students believed that the system favored supporters of the ruling Awami League party, which had spearheaded the freedom movement, and that many positions in the civil service were terminated for merit.
In Rangpur, in the city’s northern city, police shot student protester Abu Sayed dead on July 16. His death marked a turning point for the uprising in July, intensifying the protests and raising a national outcry.
Salman F. Rahman, Hasina’s ally and economics adviser, is allegedly trying to contact Sayed about the postmortem report in a secret phone recording. Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, the inspector general of police, is questioned by Rahman during the call in order to find out what had happened to the report.
Why does the postmortem report take so long to arrive? Who is playing hide and seek? “Rangpur Medical” He inquired about Rangpur Medical College and Hospital, which was performing Sayed’s autopsy.
Dr. Rajibul Islam, a doctor at Rangpur Medical College Hospital, claimed that he was forced by police to omit any mention of multiple bullet wounds from his postmortem five times.
According to them, “They wanted to write a report saying that Abu Sayed Bhai died from police bullets while he died from injuries from stone-throwing.”
His family traveled to Dhaka for a televised event with the prime minister 12 days after Sayed’s passing. About 40 families total were gathered, with all of them having witnessed the protests’ deaths.
Sayed’s father, Maqbul Hossain, referred to the PM’s residence as “Hasina forced us to come to Ganabhaban.” They forced us to come; otherwise, they might have tortured us in another way.
Hasina distributed money to each family as the event was being captured on camera. She stated to Sumi Khatun, Sayed’s sister, that “we will bring justice to your family.”
Khatun responded to the PM, “The police shot him, as was clearly visible in the video.” What can we find here to look into? “Coming here was a mistake.
A spokesperson for the Awami League told Al Jazeera that Hasina had never authorized the use of the term “lethal weapons” and had never used the phrase “lethal force.”
This recording from Hasina’s phone is either cherry-picked, manipulated, or both.
Source: Aljazeera
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