Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday formally charged former Dhaka police commissioner Habibur Rahman Habib and seven other police officers for alleged atrocities during last year’s anti-government protests.
The protests, which led to the fall of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, saw widespread violence. This marks the first time the tribunal has taken up a case concerning mass killings and human rights violations during the July 2024 uprising.
A three-member tribunal bench, led by Justice M Golam Mortuza, accepted the prosecution’s charges and scheduled the hearing to begin on June 3.
“There are grounds to take into cognizance the formal allegations,” Prothom Alo newspaper quoted the bench as saying. According to the charges, the then Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habib, now at large, allegedly ordered subordinates to open fire on protesting crowds at the Chankharpul area in old Dhaka. Apart from Habib three other accused are on the run while four are in jail. The four were present as the tribunal accepted the charge.
Hasina, who is now in India, and several of her cabinet and party colleagues are accused of identical crimes.
The tribunal’s move came as government employees for a second consecutive day staged protests inside the Bangladesh Secretariat on Sunday against the proposed Government Service (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025.
The protestors have been demanding its withdrawal, calling it a black law that made it easy for authorities to take punitive actions and terminate the government employees.Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s interim Cabinet approved the law last week and now awaits presidential assent.
