Hasina ordered Nitor not to treat or release July uprising injured: ICT chief prosecutor

The then prime minister Sheikh Hasina had allegedly ordered the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Nitor) not to treat or release the July uprising injured, just days before her ouster last year when she visited the facility.

"She issued that directive to prevent those who were injured during the protests in July last year from receiving treatment or leaving the hospital. The prosecution has evidence of this," the International Crimes Tribunal's (ICT) Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam said today (23 February).

"When we visited Nitor [commonly known as Pongu hospital], the injured patients and their family members told us that Sheikh Hasina had visited them once before fleeing the country. At that time, she ordered 'no treatment, no release' of the injured.

"It means she had ordered the on-duty doctors and hospital authorities not to provide treatment to the injured or allow any of those patients to leave the hospital," the chief prosecutor told a press briefing at the prosecution team's office at ICT in Dhaka.

Tajul said the doctors also confirmed them about Hasina's order. "We have evidence of this and we have informed the court about this today."

Many netizens on Facebook, however, stated that a 'no treatment, no release' order means that a person will not be allowed to leave a medical facility until they have received necessary treatment, essentially preventing them from being discharged until their medical condition is addressed.

Meanwhile, replying to a question, Tajul said the Hasina administration also did not allow officials concerned to conduct inquests on the bodies of those killed during the July uprising while many were even prevented from issuing death certificates.

They were also not allowed to write bullet wounds as the cause of death in the death certificates of those who succumbed to gunshot injuries at hospitals, he added.

"Doctors were forced to write down respiratory issues or fever as the cause of their death." 

Police even attacked family members of the deceased on the road when they were taking the bodies of the martyrs for burial, Tajul said.

"The court asked us why there are no inquest or autopsy reports, which are very important evidence. We have informed the court that the level of crimes against humanity was so horrible at the time that people were forced to bury many martyrs' bodies in a hurry.

"This is why no postmortem report was provided. This is a glaring example of the crimes against humanity committed during that time, which shows how brutally people were killed in July-August."

Tajul further said they would scrutinise all the proof of Hasina's brutality following due process and then submit to the tribunal after processing them through forensic tests as evidence in cases filed over genocide and crimes against humanity charges.