Stating that the UN fact-finding report rightly revealed Sheikh Hasina’s involvement in mass killings during the July-August mass uprising, the BNP has demanded that India return her to Bangladesh for prosecution.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demand at a press briefing at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office after a meeting with Acting British High Commissioner in Dhaka, James Goldman, on Thursday.
“I would like to thank the UN fact-finding committee for their report, which correctly states that the killings were carried out as per the orders of a particular individual, the fascist Hasina,” he said.
He said the report said the mass killings, all human rights violations, and the destruction of democracy and institutions were carried out by her orders.
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"It has been proven that Hasina is a fascist who has tortured, persecuted and killed the people of this country. We are calling upon the Indian government today to immediately return her (Hasina) and her accomplices to Bangladesh and hand her over to the government for trial. This is our expectation,” Fakhrul said.
He expressed their party’s relief as the truth about the incidents that took place has now been uncovered through the UN report. “The problem is that when the United Nations speaks, we all believe it. But when we, the political parties, say it, many are reluctant to believe. Anyway, I would like to thank the UN team that came here and presented the report.”
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released its Fact-Finding Report titled 'Human Rights Violations and Abuses Related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh' on Friday.
Fakhrul also talked about the issue of enforced disappearances and the "Aynaghar torture cells," saying, it is a fact that the people of Bangladesh have been subjected to enforced disappearances and brutal killings.
"Enforced disappearances and killings are not limited to any particular party. The people of Bangladesh have been made to disappear here (in Aynaghar), and they have been brutally killed... These are the things we have been saying from the very beginning,” he said.
When the report on Aynaghar was released on Al Jazeera, the BNP leader said the Awami League government at the time had completely denied it, claiming that nothing like this was there. “But from the very beginning, these things were taking place."
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He alleged that the Awami League regime used to pick people up and then falsely accuse them of being militants. Many people were repressed in torture cells to extract various confessions about their supposed involvement in militant activities, the BNP leader said.
“Some people were kept in the torture cells to create a fake narrative, using them to stage militant dramas at different times... they showed that militant training was happening in various houses and bombs were being made, all to demonstrate that militants were spreading. But today, it has been proven that the things we said were true,” he said.
Fakhrul said the Awami League government, at that time, deliberately violated human rights in Bangladesh, destroyed democracy, and targeted the opposition simply to remain in power.