Asif Nazrul, the Dhaka University professor-turned-legal adviser to the Bangladesh interim government, said on Wednesday that said that the interim government has decided to hold trials at the International Crimes Tribunal (Bangladesh) for ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina for the killings that occurred during recent student protests.
“The cases of killings that took place in the students’ movement from July 1 to August 5 will be tried by the International Criminal Tribunal. We have seen the names of some ministers in the newspapers who are alleged to be involved, including the head of government of the former government,” Nazrul said.
The interim government legal adviser said that since the former prime minister and other ministers had the responsibility to give commands their role in the deaths during the student quota protests will be probed.
“We will not make any concessions here. We will look into it and see if the prime minister of the outgoing government and others had ‘command responsibility’,” Nazrul told reporters, according to Prothom Alo.
Here are the top updates from Bangladesh which is witnessing a period of unrest:
- Padma Shri awardee and critically-acclaimed Indian filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak’s ancestral home in Bangladesh’s Rajshahi was demolished by authorities of a nearby homoeopathic medical college, according to a report by Prothom Alo.
- Notable writer Mahasweta Devi, who won Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanpith Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award along with Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan, also lived in the demolished ancestral home of Ghatak for a short period of time. Devi was Ghatak’s niece.
- Australian MP Julian Lesser raised alarms over attacks on Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh at the parliament in Canberra. “Bangladeshi Hindus are being subjected to increasingly violent persecution. It is sadly not a new occurrence, though it is one that has increased in severity and frequency in recent days. Hindu neighbourhoods have been targeted, with households, temples and workplaces being attacked by large violent mobs,” said Julian Lesser.
- Malaysia’s opposition lawmaker Wan Ahmad Fayhsal told CNN-News18 in an exclusive interview that the interim government of Bangladesh and its civil society leaders must condemn the attacks on the minority Bengali Hindus and other minorities.
- Veteran Malaysian politician Ramasamy Palanisamy pressed Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian Prime Minister, to condemn the atrocities committed against the Bengali Hindu minority in Bangladesh when he reaches New Delhi for a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week.
- Several colleges and universities in Bangladesh have told its students, teachers and their respective unions to refrain from indulging in political activities. Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College (SZMC), Dhaka’s Jagannath University and Kushtia Medical College (KMC) have issued directives barring political activities in the college premises.
- Gana Adhikar Parishad has asked the interim government to ban Awami League and its youth wings Chhatra League and Jubo League.
- Sheikh Hasina and her former cabinet minister Obaidul Quader were charged for the murder of student protester Faizul Islam.
- Bangladesh supreme court lawyer Gazi MH Tamim filed an application on behalf of Bulbul Kabir, father of slain student protester Arif Ahmed Siam, accusing Sheikh Hasina, her ministers, Bangladesh inspector general of police, Awami League and its youth league of genocide and crimes against humanity during the student protests at the International Criminal Tribunal’s investigation agency.
- The anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), has said it has recovered 97 firearms looted from police stations, armouries, police officers and police lines during the recent unrest.
(with inputs from Prothom Alo, ANI)
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