The slogan ‘This is the new Bangladesh’ was spray-painted on the gate of a bungalow to mark the recent anti-government protest that ousted then PM Sheikh Hasina, in the Dhaka University area on August 19, 2024. | Photo credit: PTI
Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 86 others were on Wednesday (August 21, 2024) booked for attacking a procession in Sylhet city in which several people were injured by gunfire during a massive protest on August 4, taking the number of cases against her since her ouster to 33.
Zuber Ahmed, acting president of the Sylhet city unit of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, filed the case in the court of Sylhet Metropolitan Magistrate Suman Bhuiya.
Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana is also an accused in this case.
According to case details, the accused attacked a peaceful rally organised by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allied organisations in the Bandarbazar area of Sylhet city on August 4, leaving several people shot and injured, The Daily Star newspaper reported.
The case names Awami League general secretary and former road transport minister Obaidul Quader, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, former foreign minister Hasan Mahmud, former law minister Anisur Rahman and former prime minister’s adviser Salman F Rahman, among others.
The newspaper said that with this case, 33 cases have now been registered against Hasina, which include 27 cases of murder, four of crimes against humanity and genocide and one case of kidnapping.
Hasina resigned from her post and fled to India on 5 August amid unprecedented anti-government student protests.
The Hasina-led government was removed and an interim government was formed with 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus appointed as its chief advisor.
Bangladesh’s interim government has said it will prosecute at the International Crimes Tribunal those involved in the killings during the recent student movement against the Hasina-led government.
More than 230 people have been killed in Bangladesh in incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government, taking the death toll to over 600 since massive protests launched by students in mid-July against a controversial quota system in government jobs.
On Tuesday, he along with five others was implicated in the killing of private company employee Firoz Talukder in indiscriminate firing from a helicopter by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) during the recent anti-discrimination student movement.
Earlier, a case was filed against Hasina, her son Sajeeb, daughter Saima and sister Rehana and 17 others in connection with the murder of a fruit seller in Jatrabari in the capital on August 5.
The victim’s father, Sultan Mia, filed the case in the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Shakil Ahmed.
Another case was filed against Hasina and 49 others in connection with the death of Mohammad Omar Faruk, a student of Kabi Najrul Government College in Laxmi Bazar of Sutrapur on July 19.
Hasina and 24 others were sued for the death of 18-year-old garment worker Sohel Rana in the city’s Adabor area on August 5.
Hasina and 75 Awami League men were charged for the murder of a barber shop employee in Savar on 5 August.
In Narayanganj, a case was filed against Hasina, seven former ministers and MPs and 179 others for the murder of a bus helper in Kanchpur area of Sonargaon upazila.
In Rangpur, Hasina, her sister and 49 others were charged for the murder of a vegetable trader during the reservation reform movement on July 19.
A murder case has been registered against Hasina and 216 others in connection with the death of an auto driver in front of the police station on August 5 in Joypurhat.
Hasina and Obaidul Quader have been charged for the murder of a rickshaw driver in Bogura on August 4.