This paper illustrates the dreadful tragedy of extra judical killing, torture, disappearances of thousands of people by security forces in Bangladesh during the student movement in the month of July 2024, while Sheikh Hasina was in power. This incident is also infamous as the July massacre. After hundreds of protestors were killed by the security forces, then PM Hasina fled to India, thereafter the President appointed Prof. Muhammad Yunus as a chief advisor of the interim Government of Bangladesh. The interim government with investigating agencies thoroughly investigated the massacre incidents. A number of relatives of deceased protestors filed cases against authorities and then PM Sheikh Hasina with national courts. The United Nations Human Rights fact-finding report on Bangladesh’s protests documented systematic human rights violations committed by security forces and Awami League supporters against protesters. With a number of recommendations, the most explosive charge in the report is the classification of the July 2024 events as “crimes against humanity”—a term not used lightly in international legal discourse. Ultimately, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death for crimes against humanity committed during the July Uprising.
Background
In Bangladesh, during the reign of Sheikh Hasina, as a result of the quota system of Bangladesh civil service, the students, frustrated by shortages of good jobs, had been demanding an end to a quota that reserved 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The government previously halted it in 2018 following mass student protests, but in June 2024, Bangladesh’s High Court reinstated the quotas. Ruling on an appeal, the Supreme Court ordered that the veterans’ quota be cut to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be allocated on merit. The remaining 2% will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people. Even after the Supreme Court cut the veterans’ quota, on July 21, youth protests continued to spread amid outrage over the violence.
Thereafter, demonstrations, tensions escalated after clashes between protesters and members of the Chhatra League. The Police, Rapid Action Battalion, and Border Guard Bangladesh, as well as members of the ruling party’s student, youth and volunteer wings, were involved in violent confrontations with the protesters. It resulted in numerous deaths of protesters, law enforcement personnel, party members, bystanders, and children. According to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the massacre resulted in 650 deaths from 16 July to 11 August 2024. It was reported that 78% of the fatalities sustained lethal bullet wounds. However, in an interview, Home Affairs adviser M Sakhawat Hossain indicated that the actual death toll may be much higher than this figure.
Caretaker Government
After violent street demonstrations by students, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, fled the country.
The President of Bangladesh appointed Prof. Muhammad Yunus as a chief advisor of the interim caretaker government of Bangladesh. A 16-member advisor appointed in his cabinet including two student leaders and some economists. Mr. Yunus is known internationally as the “banker to the poor”. In 1983, he started Grameen Bank, which offers small, long-term loans to help poor people start their own small businesses. The concept has since taken off around the world. In 2006, Prof Yunus and the bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The caretaker government of Bangladesh was a form of government in which Bangladesh used to be ruled by a selected government for an interim period during the transition from one elected government to another between 1996 and 2008. The outgoing elected government used to hand over its power to the non-elected nonpartisan caretaker government. It was meant to ensure free and fair elections, but this provision of the constitution was scrapped by the two-thirds majority government of the Awami League. Thereafter, instability and election boycotts by the opposition party in Bangladesh started after the abrogation by the Awami League-led government in 2011, which amended this provision of the constitution with two third majority in 1998 that allowed for a caretaker government.
However, on June 10, 2025, the High Court restored the constitutional provision for a caretaker government system to oversee parliamentary elections, effectively nullifying the previous 15th Amendment to the constitution, which had abolished the caretaker system. The court emphasized that the caretaker government system, established through political consensus, is vital for ensuring free, fair, and credible elections.
Major Political Players
The constituent assembly adopted Bangladesh’s constitution on 4 November 1972, establishing a secular, multiparty parliamentary democracy. The Constitution of Bangladesh established a unitary, Westminster-style parliamentary republic with universal suffrage. Bangladesh is governed by a 350-member parliament, known as the Jatiyo Sangshad. Three hundred of its members are elected on a first past the post basis, and 50 seats are reserved for female nominees by political parties.
The Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, led the struggle for independence, first through massive populist and civil disobedience movements, such as the Six Point Movement and 1971 Non-Cooperation Movement. After the emergence of independent Bangladesh, the Awami League won the first general elections in 1973 but was overthrown in 1975 after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Subsequent military regimes forced the party onto the political sidelines, and many of its senior leaders and activists were executed and jailed. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, the Awami League again emerged as one of the principal players in Bangladeshi politics. Amongst the leaders of the Awami League, five have become the President of Bangladesh, four have become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and one became the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Since 2014, Awami League Party has ruled the nation without opposition in the Parliament as the opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP) boycotted the elections. Former Prime Minister , Sheikh Hasina, has headed the party since 1981.
Another major political party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was founded by former Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman after the Presidential election of 1978, intending to unite the people with a nationalist ideology of the country. Since then, the BNP won the second, fifth, sixth and eighth national elections and two Presidential elections in 1978 and 1981. The party also holds the record of being the most significant opposition in the history of parliamentary elections of the country.
Major Incidents and Accusations
In July 2024, approximately 46 unidentified bodies were buried in Dhaka’s Rayerbazar graveyard. Graveyard workers reported a rise in these burials, although the cemetery’s official records did not document these unidentified individuals. In the same month, a violent suppression of a students’ protest in Rampura Thana, Dhaka by the Police and BGB resulted in at least 11 deaths and more than 21 injured. Prothom Alo reported that 624 people died between July 16 and August 16, with 354 of those deaths occurring before the resignation of Sheikh Hasina. Among the total reported deaths, 66 were children. Additionally, certain reports have also indicated that among the deceased, 117 were associated with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and 87 with the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. It was reported that 78% of the fatalities sustained lethal bullet wounds.
Moreover, an incident occurred near Ashulia Police Station in Savar, where a video surfaced showing police officers piling up dead bodies on a van.The footage went viral on social media, leading to widespread outrage and demands for accountability. The video depicts several bloodstained bodies, partially covered with bedsheets, being placed on a van by individuals wearing police vests and carrying firearms. Documents from Dhaka Medical College and Hospital indicated that 1,700 people were admitted during the protests, with 98 reported deaths. In August, Asif Nazrul, the Interim government’s law adviser, announced that the crimes committed during the July massacre would be prosecuted at the International Crimes Tribunal. Later, Volker Türk, the head of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, issued a press release stating that investigations into the killings during the protests would commence soon.
Further, the father of a student who was killed during the protests filed a petition at the International Crimes Tribunal. The petition called for an investigation into charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Sheikh Hasina and nine other individuals. The Awami League and its associated organizations were also named as accused in the petition, leading to the court initiating a formal investigation. In August, two additional murder charges were filed against Sheikh Hasina and several of her associates related to the deaths of two individuals during the protests. The Bangladesh War Crimes Tribunal initiated investigations into three “mass murder” cases against Sheikh Hasina, including charges related to the killing of 450 protesters during the unrest. In September , over a month after the incident and Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, one Constable Sujon Hossain was arrested for his involvement in the Chankharpul massacre.The International Crimes Tribunal issued an order for him to be incarcerated for crimes against humanity on 12 January 2025.
Hasina, after the student revolution, who now lives in India, and most of her senior colleagues in the party and government are in jail or fled the country as the interim government accused them of committing crimes against humanity. Relations between Dhaka and Delhi have been frosty since Hasina’s exit and India did not react to Bangladesh’s demands to extradite her to face charges of crimes against humanity, money laundering and corruption. Hasina denies the accusations against her. The interim government banned Awami League and all of its activities in cyberspace and elsewhere, under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The ban would last until the International Crimes Tribunal completes the trial of the party and its leaders.
Office of the High Commission for Human Right (OHCHR) Report on 2024 Protests in Bangladesh
On February 12, 2025, the United Nations, OHCHR report on 2024 protests in Bangladesh documented systematic human rights violations committed by security forces and Awami League supporters against protesters.
The report calls for urgent reforms, including an end to militarized policing, independent investigations into abuses, protection of journalists and civil society, and economic and judicial reforms to address systemic corruption and inequality. It clearly indicates that some violations may constitute crimes against humanity, requiring international accountability measures.
The most significant and explosive charge in the report is the classification of the July 2024 events as “crimes against humanity”—a term not used lightly in international legal discourse. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, crimes against humanity include widespread or systematic attacks directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack. The UN report accuses the Hasina administration of committing murder, enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial executions—all of which fall within this category.
This fact finding mission started their investigation from September 2024 into the events of July and August 2024. Members of the mission visited several key cities in Bangladesh, including Dhaka, Chattogram, Rangpur, and other locations affected by the protests and violence. Interviews were conducted with a range of individuals, including victims, witnesses, law enforcement officers, and medical practitioners. The team also collected information from human rights organisations, civil society groups, and other stakeholders involved in the protests.
As part of its investigation, the mission called for submissions from individuals, groups, and organisations to provide additional evidence or testimonies that had not been made publicly available. The mission’s investigation was independent of any national legal processes. The fact-finding team worked under the mandate of the United Nations Human Rights Office to determine the facts but did not have the authority to prosecute or arrest individuals.
The United Nations fact-finding mission on Bangladesh, published on 12 February 2025 by the OHCHR, documented widespread human rights violations during the protests between July and August 2024. The report, based on over 250 interviews and various digital pieces of evidence, outlined several key issues and conclusions regarding the crackdown by former Bangladeshi government officials.
The UN report now forces a strategic reassessment. If accountability is not enforced, it sends a dangerous message to autocrats worldwide: that the murder of 1,400 citizens can go unpunished as long as geopolitical interests are served. The inclusion of the report as evidence in future trials, as mentioned by a UN official, is thus not only legally important but morally imperative.
Verdict of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)
On 17th November 2025, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death for crimes against humanity committed during the July Uprising. Former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun has been sentenced to five years in prison after confessing to his guilt and testifying as a public witness against the former prime minister and home minister in the tribunal. He was pardoned after the tribunal ruled that he made a full and truthful disclosure of the events within his knowledge. A three-member panel of ICT-1, led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mazumder, read the long-awaited verdict after months of hearings in the landmark case. The tribunal found that all three exercised command responsibility over killings, torture and the use of lethal force during the 2024 student-led protests. Hasina was convicted on three counts under Charge-2, while Kamal and Mamun were found guilty on two counts for abetting the use of drones, helicopters and live ammunition, and for failing to restrain the forces under their command.
The International Crimes Tribunal is a domestic war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh set up in 2009 to investigate and prosecute suspects for the genocide committed in 1971 by the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators. During the 2008 general election, the Awami League pledged to try war criminals. The government set up the tribunal after the Awami League won the general election in December 2008 with a more than two-thirds majority in parliament.
In 1973 the newly independent government of Bangladesh passed a law, the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act (ICT Act 1973), to authorise the investigation and prosecution of the persons responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international law committed in 1971.
On 25 March 2009 the government tried to amend this law to bring it up to date and in keeping with international standards for similar trials. As a part of the amendment procedure, the government sent the act to the Law Commission, where it was scrutinised by specialist lawyers, judges and professors of the universities.On 9 July 2009, Parliament amended the act as recommended by the commission.
The amendments provided that a political party that had worked against the liberation of Bangladesh could be tried on the same charges as individuals. They also authorised the government to file appeals with the Appellate Division if the tribunal ruled for acquittal for a suspect. The International Bar Association has stated that the “1973 Legislation, together with the 2009 amending text, provides a system which is broadly compatible with current international standards.”