Dhaka, July 25 (IANS) The official gazette published last year by Bangladesh’s former Muhammad Yunus-led interim government listing those killed during the July 2024 protests has come under renewed scrutiny following allegations that it included hundreds of deaths unrelated to the quota movement.
The list potentially inflated the number of protest-related deaths and wrongly attributed responsibility to the former Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, a report has stated.
Citing an investigation by a group of independent journalists and retired police officers (MARK. R&AUA), a recent report in ‘Northeast News’ noted that the “July Martyrs Gazette” was deliberately expanded to include hundreds of individuals whose deaths had no connection to the anti-quota protests or the political unrest that led to the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
The report accessed by Northeast News cites the official definition of a “July martyr” issued jointly by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Liberation War Affairs and the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
It noted that the definition specifies that only individuals killed “as a result of attacks by the state, law enforcement agencies or the then government” during the period beginning with the quota reform movement and ending with the August 5 mass uprising are “eligible for recognition” as July martyrs.
“Based on that definition, the investigation argues that the qualifying period effectively ended when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left the country on August 5, 2024. It acknowledges that individuals injured during that period who later died from those injuries could legitimately qualify. However, it contends that the gazette includes hundreds of people who died after August 5 from entirely unrelated causes,” the report mentioned.
The investigative report alleges that following Hasina’s departure and the Army Chief’s announcement that the military had taken charge of maintaining law and order, coordinated attacks were carried out on police establishments across Bangladesh, Northeast News mentioned.
“Thousands of weapons and rounds of ammunition were looted from police lines and more than 500 police stations and outposts were attacked. During those incidents, police personnel, members of the Ansar force and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were allegedly attacked and killed,” it mentioned.
“Subsequent investigations into those killings were halted through indemnity provisions. It argues that nearly 300 people who died during the tenure of the interim government after August 5, 2024, for various unrelated reasons, were nevertheless included in the July Martyrs Gazette, thereby assigning responsibility for those deaths to the previous Awami League government,” it further added.
According to the report, the MARK. R&AUA research team’s investigation involved an extensive review of the gazette and concluded that several categories of unrelated deaths had been incorporated into the official list.
“The gazette allegedly includes individuals who died in road accidents, of electrocution, sudden heart attack, kidney failure, as a consequence of property disputes, mob assaults while allegedly attempting extortion; mob violence over allegations of religious offences, during attacks on prisons, attempts to break into prisons, self-inflicted gunfire while allegedly looting weapons and fires allegedly started while looting homes and businesses belonging to Awami League leaders,” Northeast News detailed.
–IANS
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