Welcoming the report by the UN Human Rights Office, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has reiterated the interim government’s commitment to upholding the rule of law and called on all members of Bangladesh’s justice system, including the police, prosecutors and judges, to do the same.
“I, along with everyone else working in the interim government and millions of other Bangladeshis, am committed to transforming Bangladesh into a country in which all its people can live in security and dignity,” he said on Wednesday.
The interim government thanked the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for undertaking the “most thorough independent investigation” to date of the events in Bangladesh in July and August that ended the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime.
As the report notes, the long years of the Hasina regime have left Bangladesh with ‘structural deficiencies’ in the law enforcement and justice sectors, said the Chief Adviser.
Chief Adviser to visit Aynaghar soon
The reform of these institutions is crucial to Bangladesh’s transformation into a society where its entire people can live in security and dignity, he said.
“I call on everyone working inside these institutions to side with justice, the law, and the people of Bangladesh in holding to account their own peers and others who have broken the law and violated the human and civil rights of their fellow citizens.”
The OHCHR made its investigation at the invitation of Bangladesh’s interim government. Its report identified extensive and grave human rights violations, including alleged extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture, and disproportionate use of force by the Sheikh Hasina-led government and elements associated with the Awami League, as well as a broader array of security and intelligence agencies.
Based on deaths reported by various credible sources, the report estimated that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed between 1 July and 15 August, and thousands were injured, the vast majority of whom were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces.
CA Dr Yunus to visit 'Aynaghar' soon
Of these, the report indicated that as many as 12-13 percent of those killed were children.
Bangladesh Police reported that 44 of its officers were killed.