Two deposed ministers of Bangladesh and legal activists have denounced a report by the UN's Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) on the human rights violations in their country just before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ouster in August 2024.
A panel led by Hasan Mahmud and Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury — ministers in Hasina's cabinet — released their own fact-finding report prepared by a team they said was in Bangladesh and whose identities weren't disclosed to protect them from reprisal.
The fact-finding report was published by the International Crimes Research Foundation, a British NGO that has several Bangladeshi lawyers as its members.
Hasina fled to India in 2024 following a student-led uprising fuelled by resentment against education and job reservations for kin of those who fought in the 1971 Liberation War. She was tried in absentia, convicted for involvement in "mass murder", and sentenced to death. The prosecution had heavily relied on the OHCHR report.
Mahmud claimed that out of the 1,400 casualties mentioned in the UN report, many died of unrelated causes, and some were "looters", lynched by the public. He said that 3,000 police officers who were missing and presumed dead had been overlooked by the OHCHR.
Both Mahmud and Chowdhury said they were interviewed by the OHCHR, but their testimonies on the attacks on their kin and property found no mention in the report.
"Killing people and hanging and burning from the electric pole, or from a foot overbridge, or from the branch of a tree.... They have been given indemnity (by the Yunus government). The atrocities took place from July 15 to August 15, 2024. And in this report, nothing has been mentioned about this indemnity given by the government," Mahmud said.
"It means killing 3,000 police officers and personnel. Killing ordinary workers and supporters, looting, vandalising ordinary workers and supporters' houses, burning Hindu temples, looting Hindu houses, killing Hindus, Buddhists, Christian minorities — all these things that took place from July 15 to August 15, 2024 is given indemnity. Nothing is mentioned in this so-called report of the human rights commissioner," he added.
"I want to accuse Mr Volker Turk (UN's high commissioner for human rights) for this biased report. And I want to accuse all the members of his team who have made this biased, one-sided report that is supporting the oppressors.... After (student leader) Hadi's killing, the UN Human Rights Commission issued a statement expressing its concern. But nothing was said about Deepu Chandra Das' killing," he said.
Asked about the polls expected next month and from which Hasina's Awami League is barred, he said it would be an "arranged election".
"They fear that the Awami League would have a landslide victory.... If the Awami League is allowed, the elections should be held by a neutral caretaker government because this administration is completely hostile and is taking revenge against us," Mahmud said.
Chowdhury cited public statements of student leader Sadiq Qayyum of Islami Chhatra Shibir, a fundamentalist group, that a team from their organisation had extensively helped the OHCHR researchers.
The OHCHR "interrogated" Chowdhury for five hours in a video conference, he claimed.
"So, it was a predetermined report... So, my interview was taken almost as if to justify what they were going to say.... A lot of the evidence that they relied on was from some news outlets, which had openly and clearly declared their support for the Yunus regime, and publicly called us fascists, although, of course, none of the international outlets or outlets in the region would use such a term against a sitting and elected government of this length."