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Multiple police officers told HRW that they believed that directives to use excessive force during the July-August uprising came from the political leadership.

“I believe that during the unrest, the role of the police was determined more by political leaders than by the officers in the field,” said one police officer.

Another police officer told HRW that he witnessed senior officers in the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Headquarters watch live CCTV footage and direct officers on the ground to shoot protesters like “they were ordering someone to shoot in a video game.”

Another officer said, “Senior officers ordered us to be strict and not to spare any criminals spreading anarchy. They didn’t explicitly use the word “fire,” but their instructions were clear: Apply the highest force, do whatever you think is necessary to control the situation, take a hardline approach.”

He told HRW that as he understood it, the home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, and the inspector general of police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, gave directions to the Dhaka metropolitan police commissioner, Habibur Rahman, who instructed the deputy commissioners.

One police officer later told HRW, “The police also shot at onlookers observing the scene from their homes, intending to create fear and send a message that people should not watch what was happening around them.”

Another officer said, “I witnessed officers firing at vital organs…. In many cases, I witnessed live ammunition being fired even when officers’ lives were not in danger.”

Officers involved in enforced disappearances also told HRW that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and senior members of the then government had knowledge of incommunicado detentions and that, in some cases, Hasina directly ordered enforced disappearances and killings.

The report quoted another officer as saying, “In my 10-11 years in the job, I’ve witnessed disappearances and killings by Rab. These things are real. The disappearances and crossfires that Rab engages in are impossible without the approval of police headquarters, the Ministry of Home Affairs, or especially the home minister.”

HRW interviewed Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem (Armaan) who was held in enforced disappearance since 2016. He said that he encountered an officer who told him that when he joined his unit, he was informed that Armaan, Abdullahil Amaan Azmi, a former brigadier general, and Humam Quader Chowdhury had been forcibly disappeared and were being held there, and that “any decision to release them has to be taken by Sheikh Hasina”.

Azmi, Hummam and Armaan are all sons of prominent opposition politicians.

“There are also troubling indications that security forces are obstructing the investigations by the newly formed commission of inquiry into enforced disappearances. The commission members said that while it had located eight new sites of unlawful detention, there were concerned over security forces’ attempts “to destroy evidence linked to these secret cells,” stated the report.

The Daily Star could not independently verify the allegations that came up in the HRW report.

ABUSES CONTINUE

The report noted that law enforcement and security agencies continue to perpetrate abuses.

“Due to the deeply ingrained systemic obstacles to accountable governance, a disturbingly familiar pattern of security force abuses and political reprisals has reemerged, this time targeting perceived Awami League supporters,” said the report.

“For instance, in the first two months since the interim government took office, over 1,000 police cases were filed against tens of thousands of people, mainly Awami League members, accusing them of murder, corruption, or other crimes.”

HRW reviewed eight First Information Reports (FIRs) filed in relation to the July and August killings, naming up to 297 individuals each, including Hasina and Awami League ministers and up to 600 unnamed individuals.

Five plaintiffs in the eight cases told HRW that they did not know who was named as the accused when they filed the case. They said the police or local politicians simply told them to sign the papers.

Two plaintiffs told HRW that local political leaders opposed to the Awami League asked them to sign the police reports, though they were not sure against whom they were filing the cases.

HRW interviewed the mother of a student protester who was killed in Dhaka’s Lakshmibazar area, who said that when she went to file a case at the magistrate court, police and local political leaders simply told her to sign an FIR that had already been written and named 50 accused as well as 200-300 unnamed accused.

Among those named in the FIR that she signed were 47 Awami League former ministers, lawmakers, and Awami League student activists, as well as a teacher and two doctors, found HRW. She told HRW that she does not know who some of these people are or how they would be involved in her son’s murder.

The report noted that law enforcers continue to file criminal complaints against large numbers of “unknown” people. It called it “a common abusive practice in Bangladesh, which in effect authorises the police to arrest almost anyone and repeatedly re-arrest detainees even though they are not named accused in a case.”

Police have pursued criminal charges against journalists for what was seen as backing the Hasina government in their reporting during the Monsoon Revolution, said HRW.

“As of November, authorities have filed murder charges against at least 140 journalists in relation to their reporting on the Monsoon Revolution,” said HRW, adding, “For example, police in Chattogram are investigating charges against 28 journalists for having ‘produced false and fabricated contents concealing the true events during the student protest.’”

HRW spoke with two healthcare workers, Amzad Hossain and Nizam Uddin, who had been working at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital during the student protests, who were accused of killing a student protester, Wasim Akram.

“On that day (July 16) we were helping the duty doctors with Wasim’s body along with three other bodies of people who were also killed during the protest. We even helped the families to get the bodies for the last rites. When I found my name was among those listed in the case involving the killing of Wasim, I was shocked. I was at the hospital on that day and was performing double duty as so many injured students were brought to the hospital,” said Amzad Hossain to HRW.

The report also noted that the overall security situation has disintegrated. “Groups promoting extremist Islam are attacking minorities, particularly those from Hindu and Ahmadiyya communities. Ethnic minorities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts endure continued discrimination and violence by the authorities,” it said.

The report recommended that the interim government should take steps to structurally reform the home ministry to ensure the political independence of staff overseeing law enforcement.

“HRW spoke to police officers who described a system in which promotions depended on political sponsorship and bribes. HRW has also documented the use of the police awards as an incentive for repression. This systemic political interference led to the understanding that as a security force officer one’s duty included crackdowns on political opposition,” said the report.

They also urged the government to ensure that take steps to ensure that the prosecution and the judiciary are independent of the executive and protected from political control and interference.

“To end arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, the interim government should build systems prohibiting filing cases against unnamed accused and mass arrest warrants, revising laws that allow for vague and overly broad charges to target critics,” said the report.

The HRW said that the government should also disband the Rapid Action Battalion.