17/02/2025
Prime Minister herself told security force officials to kill protesters and hide the bodies of leaders: OHCHR Fact-Finding Report
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"One former senior official related that from the Bangladesh TV attack onwards, the BGB was used as a “strike force.” On the evening of 18 July, the then Home Affairs Minister chaired a meeting of the “Core Committee,” attended by the heads of Police, RAB, and BGB and intelligence leaders. At the meeting, the Minister told the BGB Commander, in front of the other senior security sector leaders, to order the use of lethal force much more readily, as one of the meeting participants related to OHCHR. Senior official testimony also indicated that, in a meeting held the next day, the Prime Minister herself told security force officials to kill protesters to quell the protests and specifically demanded to “arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies.” This testimony is also consistent with Awami League Secretary-General and government minister Obaidul Quader telling reporters on 19 July that security forces had been given orders to “shoot on sight,” an instruction manifestly incompatible with international human rights standards."
