Bangladeshi tribunal frames charges against 8 persons for atrocities during 2024 uprising

Dhaka/New Delhi: Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Sunday framed charges against a former police commissioner and seven other officers for their alleged atrocities during last year’s anti-government protests.

The protests had led to the ouster of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime.

The tribunal for the first time took cognizance of a case filed over mass killings and atrocities committed during the July 2024 uprising.

A three-member bench of the tribunal, headed by Justice M Golam Mortuza, accepted the charges submitted by the prosecution against Dhaka’s ex-police commissioner Habibur Rahman Habib and seven other policemen and set June 3 as the date for starting hearing in the case.

“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.

National Board of Revenue (NBR) officials also abstained from work for the second consecutive day demanding scrap of a separate new ordinance.

The protest began after the NBR Reform Unity Council rejected the finance ministry's decision to amend the Revenue Policy and Revenue Management Ordinance which seeks to dissolve the NBR and form two existing divisions, separating tax policymaking from administration.

Yunus's government in the past two days faced several challenges.

There have been reports of discord between the military and the interim government over the possible timeline for holding the parliamentary elections and other policy issues related to Bangladesh’s security affairs, particularly involving a proposed humanitarian corridor of aid channel to Myanmar’s rebel-held Rakhine state.

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman along with the Navy and Air Force chiefs met Yunus last week and reportedly reiterated their call for election by December this year to allow an elected government to take charge. They also conveyed their reservation about the corridor issue.

The next day, Zaman held a senior officers meeting at Dhaka Cantonment and said he was unaware of the government's several strategic decisions despite the military’s active role.

The military also decided to be tough against rampant incidents of “mob justice”.

Troops were called out of their barracks with magistracy power to maintain law and order.

Yunus on Saturday held an unscheduled closed-door meeting of the advisory council which later said in a statement that they discussed in detail the “three primary responsibilities entrusted to the interim government – elections, reforms, and justice”.

“The Council discussed how unreasonable demands, deliberately provocative and jurisdictionally overreaching statements, and disruptive programmes have been continuously obstructing the normal functioning environment and creating confusion and suspicion among the public,” it read.

The statement said despite all obstacles, the interim government continued to fulfil its responsibilities by putting national interests above group interests.