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from using his pistol despite repeated threats.

This is the first testimony from a field-level officer, who described police shootings during last year’s July uprising.

Ashraful, who led a team of 20 police personnel, said he reached Shahbagh Police Station from Mirpur Police Lines in the early morning on August 5. Four other teams also reached there. He learnt that around 5:00am, then DMP commissioner Habibur Rahman and around 6:00am, then joint commissioner Sudip Kumar Chakraborty instructed senior officers to suppress the day’s protests with force.

At 9:00am, ADC Akhtarul, AC Imrul of Ramna Zone, and Inspector Arshad Hossain of Shahbagh Police Station briefed around 100 police personnel. Sixty to 65 policemen were later deployed in the Central Shaheed Minar area, where AC Imrul threw several sound grenades, dispersed the protesters, and detained several on Akhtarul’s orders.

Ashraful said he, along with 25-35 officers including AC Imrul and constable Nasirul Islam, was later sent to Chankharpul. There, as students and residents from Bangshal and Chawkbazar attempted to march towards Shahbagh, ADC Akhtarul ordered the use of sound grenades, gas guns, and shotguns.

He said, at one point, he also ordered, “Those of you with pistols and Chinese rifles, fire at the protesters and kill them.” When Ashraful and several others refused, the ADC verbally abused and threatened them.

SI Ashraful added that constable Nasirul opened fire with a Chinese rifle, with additional bullets supplied by ADC Akhtarul. The ADC also snatched a rifle from a constable who refused to fire and handed it to constable Sujon Hossain, who continued firing while standing, kneeling, and lying on the street. APBn constable Imaj Hossain Imon also fired shots at protesters.

Ashraful said he saw several demonstrators collapse from bullet injuries while others carried them away. AC Imrul, Inspector Arshad, and five to seven APBn members then entered lanes of Nazimuddin Road and continued the firing.

By around 2:30pm, when the news spread that Sheikh Hasina had fled, police lost control of Chankharpul and retreated to Shahbagh Police Station.

Ashraful said he later questioned constable Nasirul about how he returned all 40 rounds of ammunition issued to him despite firing. Nasirul replied that ADC Akhtarul had supplied him with additional bullets.

The state defence counsel for Hasina and Asaduzzaman will cross-examine him today.

Apart from the police officer, two other prosecution witnesses testified yesterday.

Mohammad Hasan, a second-year political science student at Chattogram College, told the tribunal how Awami League leaders, along with Jubo League, Chhatra League activists, and police, carried out armed attacks on protesters during the July uprising.

He said that on July 16, while heading to Muradpur in Chattogram city with friends, his group came under gunfire from AL leaders Nurul Azim Rony, Helal Akbar Chowdhury Babor, Shaibal Das Suman, former mayor AJM Nasir, and others. According to Hasan, Rony carried a pistol, Babor a shotgun, and the others were armed with locally made weapons.

Hasan recounted that his acquaintance Faisal Ahmed Shanto was killed in the attack, Wasim Akram was hacked to death, and a carpenter named Faruk was shot dead.

Two days later, Hasan himself was injured during a protest in the New bridge area when police and AL men opened fire. “I was hit by 11 shotgun pellets in my back. Doctors removed eight,” he told the tribunal, showing his wounds.

He alleged that police, hospital authorities, and AL activists obstructed his treatment at Chattogram Medical College Hospital, forcing him to take treatment at a private hospital. Hasan held Hasina, ex-home minister Kamal, former IGP Mamun, and AL leaders responsible for the killings.

Another witness, Mohammad Sohel Mahmud, testified that on August 5 last year he saw policemen, including then Konabari Police Station officer-in-charge Ashraf and Detective Branch AC, detained a young man from a rickshaw garage on Kashimpur road in Gazipur’s Konabari.

From his cousin’s rooftop, Sohel said, he saw police take the man to a graveyard wall and shoot him dead on the spot. “Later, I learnt his name was Hridoy, and that the constable who pulled the trigger was Akram,” he told the tribunal.

State defence counsel for Hasina and Kamal cross-examined the two witnesses, saying the accused he represented were not involved in the incidents.

Meanwhile, the ICT-1 sent Sultan Ahmed, an accused of crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, to custody after he surrendered before the tribunal. His counsel sought bail on grounds of old age and illness. The tribunal ordered that Sultan remain in custody until September 18, when the bail petition will be heard.