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Dhaka, August 13 (HS). Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and six others, including two senior ministers in her cabinet and a sacked police chief, will be tried on murder charges, court officials said on Tuesday.
This is the first case registered against Hasina (76), who resigned and fled to India on August 5 following massive protests against the Awami League-led government over the controversial job reservation system. The case against Hasina and six others has been registered in connection with the death of a grocery shop owner during violent clashes last month.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury has asked the police to register it as an FIR based on a case filed by a resident of Dhaka's Mohammadpur area, a court official said. He said the case names six other accused – Awami League general secretary and former road transport minister Obaidul Quader, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, sacked inspector general of police (IGP) Abdullah Al Mamun, Dhaka police commissioner Habibur Rahman, additional IGP Harun-ur-Rashid and additional joint commissioner Biplab Kumar. The case was filed by a well-wisher of grocery shop owner Abu Sayeed, who was killed in police firing during a procession taken out in support of the reservation movement in Mohammadpur on July 19.
While Hasina moved to India, the two ministers secretly left the country hours before their resignation on August 5, while there is no information available about the whereabouts of the police officers.
According to court officials, the magistrate has directed the Mohammadpur police station to register a case. A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was not clear which agency would be entrusted with the investigation.
More than 230 people have been killed in incidents of violence that erupted across the country in Bangladesh after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5. The total number of people killed in this violence has risen to 560 since the first anti-quota protests began in mid-July.
An interim government has been formed in Bangladesh after the collapse of the Hasina-led government and 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been made its interim head. Yunus last week announced the portfolios of his 16-member advisory council.
On Monday, seven political parties, including the Awami League's arch-rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), met Yunus separately and said the interim government could take the time needed to create a conducive environment for holding free and fair elections, the Daily Star reported. “We have given this interim government the time needed to create a conducive environment for holding elections,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was quoted as saying in the report.