Hasina | Pakistan

Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina masterminded a deadly crackdown on mass protests that prompted her ouster last year, prosecutors at a domestic war crimes tribunal said on Monday. Up to 1,400 people died in July 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the opposition, according to the United Nations. Hasina lives in self-imposed exile in India, where she fled by helicopter, and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka over charges of crimes against humanity. “The investigation team has found Sheikh Hasina culpable in at least five charges,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters. “They have brought charges of abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising.” Tajul Islam said the prosecution had submitted its first report to be presented at the court set to try Hasina and two of her aides — former home minister Asaduzzaman...

Bangladesh’s interim government has banned all activities of the Awami League, the political party of deposed former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act, citing national security concerns. The decision, announced late Saturday, follows days of street protests led by the student-driven National Citizen Party, which emerged from last year’s uprising that toppled Hasina. Several Islamist and right-wing parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami and other opposition groups, joined the demonstrations, demanding that the Awami League be designated a terrorist organisation. The ban would remain in place until the trial of the party and its leadership over the deaths of hundreds of protesters at the International Crimes Tribunal is completed, the government said in a statement. The government also announced an amendment to the ICT Act, allowing the tribunal to prosecute not only individuals but also political parties and organisations. The change clears the way for the Awami League to be trie...