Police probing July Uprising cases fairly as perpetrators cannot escape justice: IGP

Police have been working cautiously to complete fair investigations into cases filed across the country related to murders and injuries during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement in July-August last year. 

According to the Police Headquarters sources, as many as 1,730 cases, including 731 murder ones, were filed across the country accusing top leaders of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina's regime and her Awami League (whose activities are now banned) of attempting to tame the July Uprising using brutal force. 

We are conducting the investigations very cautiously. Our aim is to complete them fairly to ensure the perpetrators are punished," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Baharul Alam told BSS today coinciding with the first anniversary of the uprising.

The police chief added, "The July Uprising cases are very important."

Most senior AL leaders and cabinet members of the ousted regime, including the deposed premier and party president Sheikh Hasina, former road transport minister and party general secretary Obaidul Quader, and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, were accused in many of the cases.

According to Alam, the police did not intend to conduct the investigations hastily, which could create opportunities for perpetrators to escape justice.

There is a large number of murder cases linked to the July Uprising. It will take time because the police are giving priority to completing investigations into each case fairly," he said.

However, the police chief is hopeful that the investigations into a considerable number of cases would be completed by August next year while "the Police Headquarters has been monitoring the progress of the cases".

Charge sheets in 19 cases linked to the July Uprising have so far been submitted before the courts, according to the Police Headquarters.

Eight of the charge sheets were submitted for murder cases, while 11 others were submitted under other sections of the Penal Code. 

Out of the eight murder cases, three charge sheets were filled in Sherpur, one each in Feni, Chandpur, Comilla and Kurigram districts and one in the Chattogram Metropolitan Police. 

Out of the 11 cases under other sections, one each was submitted by Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Barishal Metropolitan Police, and three by Chapainawabganj, two by Sirajganj, one by Pabna and one by Jamalpur district police and two by Police Bureau of Investigation.

Senior police officers are supervising the investigations to ensure they are conducted properly.

Many of the top AL leaders and cabinet members are now behind bars in the July Uprising cases.

According to the UN fact-finding committee, as many as 1400 people were killed during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement between July 15 and August 15 last year while the interim government reported that around 20,000 others were injured. 

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) has so far received 450 complaints involving grievous crimes committed during the July-August Mass Uprising, extrajudicial killings in so-called cross-fires and enforced disappearances carried out under the previous government.

ICT-BD Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam told BSS that probe reports in four of these cases, including one against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and two other high-profile accused, were submitted.

Charges have been formally framed in two of the cases, and ICT-1 has started recording depositions of prosecution witnesses in the case against the deposed premier, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.

The chief prosecutor said that 30 miscellaneous cases were filed so far involving 209 individuals. Of these, 84 accused have already been arrested. He added that the prosecutors were determined to bring the masterminds and direct perpetrators of these atrocities to justice. 

"We do not intend to replicate the standard of evidence used in past tribunals. We are presenting the undeniable truth-setting a rigid timeframe for investigation would not be appropriate," he said. 

Tajul Islam said that the prosecution has so far recorded statements of over 1,000 witnesses and collected extensive digital evidence, including more than 1,000 video clips, to substantiate the charges. 

Hasina, along with former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, is currently facing trial at the ICT as a principal architect of what prosecutors describe as crimes against humanity committed during the July Uprising.