Murder Case In Dhaka Grocer’s Shooting Filed Against Ex-PM Hasina, 6 Others

By Ahammad Foyez

A Dhaka resident has filed a murder case against former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, two of her cabinet ministers and four police officials over the killing of a grocer by security forces during student led-protests last month.

The court ordered police to take up the complaint filed by S.M. Amir Hamza, a businessman from the Mohammadpur area of the capital, over the shooting death of Abu Sayed.

It is the first case against Hasina since she fled the country on Aug. 5and her government fell amid an unprecedented student-people mass uprising. A new interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yusuf, took office last week.  

“Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury has ordered the Mohammadpur police station to accept the application and lodge it as a regular case,” said lawyer Mamun Mia who represents the plaintiff.

“Thousands of students and people recently held [rallies for] the quota reform movement. Those peaceful marches were fired [upon] indiscriminately in different parts of the country. Many students were killed and injured,” the complaint said, adding that on July 19, students were holding a peaceful procession in the Basila area in Mohammadpur.

The students were protesting for deep changes to government jobs that reserved a large percentage of quotas for children and grandchildren of veterans who had fought for Bangladeshi independence in the 1971 war against Pakistan, and other select groups. 

At least 528 people were killed during the 35-day anti-quota movement that started peacefully on July 1 peacefully and turned violent on July 15, according to police and hospital officials.

“There the police fired indiscriminately. Abu Sayed, a local grocer, was shot in the head while crossing the road and died on the spot,” the complaint said.

The cabinet members named in the complaint have been identified as Obaidul Quader, the Awami League general secretary and former road transport and bridges minister; and Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the former home minister. 

The others were identified as Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, former inspector general of police; Habibur Rahman, former commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP); Harun-Or-Rashid, additional commissioner and former the head of the detective branch, and Biplob Kumar Sarkar, former DMP joint commissioner.

Hasina resigned from office and fled to India last week. Authorities did not release details about the other six named in the complaint.

From India, Hasina called for an investigation on Tuesday into those responsible for the killings, the Associated Press news service reported. 

In a statement posted by her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Hasina said she wanted an investigation and demanded “punishment for those responsible for the killings and sabotage,” the news service reported.

She also called for supporters to turn out in Dhaka on Thursday to observe a national day of mourning to mark the 49th anniversary of her father’s assassination, Agence-France Presse reported.

The interim government announced it had cancelled the national holiday in the memory of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh, who was killed with other family members in August 1975. 

Family unable to file complaint

Syed, the grocer, was buried at his village home in the northernmost district of Panchagarh.

“His mother, wife and son live there. They are unable to come to Dhaka to file a case. For this reason, the plaintiff, Amir Hamza, filed this case to establish the rule of law,” lawyer Mia said. 

Laying out the alleged crimes committed, the complaint said, “Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly ordered to suppress the quota reform movement with a strong hand. On the instructions of Obaidul Quader and Asaduzzaman, the IGP [Inspector General of Police] and senior officers of the police opened fire on the procession under the instructions of the subordinate policemen.”

Previously, Hasina had faced 15 cases under the rule of an army-backed caretaker government in 2007-08. Of those, nine were filed over her alleged involvement in corruption and six cases were filed over her alleged involvement in extortion and other charges.

After Hasina regained power in 2009, the High Court quashed or dismissed the corruption cases and the plaintiffs withdrew the other cases.

Salman, Anisul arrested

Meanwhile, Hasina’s former law minister, Anisul Huq, and her former private industry and investment adviser, Salman F. Rahman, were arrested as they were leaving the capital on Tuesday evening, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner M. Mainul Hasan confirmed.

“Salman F. Rahman and Anisul Huq were arrested by police from the capital’s Sadarghat area while they were fleeing by a boat,” he told BenarNews.

He said Rahman and Huq, who had been in hiding since Aug. 5 when Hasina fled the country, face a murder case filed with the New Market police station.