UN says Sheikh Hasina’s crackdown could also be crime towards humanity

As much as 1,400 individuals had been killed in final yr’s anti-government protests in Bangladesh, most of them by safety forces, the United Nations estimates.

UN human rights investigators accuse the deposed authorities of Sheikh Hasina of a brutal response that they warn may quantity to “crimes towards humanity”.

They discovered “an official coverage to assault and violently repress anti-government protesters and sympathisers”, calculated to hold on to energy within the face of mass opposition.

Sheikh Hasina, who had been in workplace for 15 years, fled by helicopter to India shortly earlier than crowds stormed her residence.

1000’s extra had been injured within the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its conflict of independence in 1971.

Pupil-led protests towards quotas in civil service jobs escalated into a national motion to oust Ms Hasina and her Awami League Occasion following a brutal police crackdown.

The UN investigators documented the taking pictures at level clean vary of some protesters, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and torture.

Kids too had been focused – the report estimates as much as 13% of the 1,400 individuals killed had been youngsters.

The report was requested by Bangladesh’s caretaker chief, Muhammad Yunus.

Whereas it attributes many of the violence to authorities safety forces, it additionally raises issues about assaults on these perceived to be supporters of the previous authorities, and towards some non secular and ethnic teams.

These should be investigated too, the UN says.