Bangladesh Police Brutality: The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) has exposed police brutality during the 2024 protests in Bangladesh. Examining videos of two incidents in Dhaka on 5 August, ITJP found that Bangladeshi police carried out deliberate attacks on peaceful and unarmed protesters. Let us tell you that after these incidents, Sheikh Hasina resigned from the post of Prime Minister and left the country and came to India.
Video footage examined by filmmaker Callum McCrae showed that police were in no danger from the protesters. He said that the use of violence by the police was not legally correct. The footage also showed that the protesters included students and other civilians, who became victims of police bullets.
Bullets fired outside the police station
The ITJP investigation team, including McCray, analyzed footage from two August 5 incidents in which Bangladeshi police were accused of opening fire on and killing unarmed civilian protesters. One incident occurred at around 2 pm outside Jatrabari police station in the south of Dhaka. Smartphone video showed dozens of students gathered outside the police station when police opened fire on them.
Criticism of Sheikh Hasinaβs rule
There were allegations of corruption and human rights violations during Sheikh Hasinaβs 15-year rule. Last year, when protests broke out across the country, Sheikh Hasinaβs government resorted to police force to suppress the protesters. Amnesty International reports that police misused lethal weapons against protesters, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring many more.
international response
Yasmin Sooka, ITJP Executive Director, said that looking at this police brutality, it appears that Sheikh Hasina tried her best to suppress the movement. But could not succeed. After this he had to resign after losing and was forced to flee the country.