Online Report
A forensic expert from Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) testified Monday that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina personally ordered the use of lethal weapons against protesters during last year’s July Uprising.
Appearing before International Crimes Tribunal-2, Inspector Rukunuzzaman of CID Digital Forensic Lab said his team had analysed an audio recording of a phone call between Hasina and former Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.
“The CID confirmed that the female voice matched 100 percent with Hasina, and the male voice matched 100 percent with Taposh,” Rukunuzzaman told the tribunal while testifying as the 49th prosecution witness in the ongoing crimes against humanity case against Hasina and two others.
During the hearing, the tribunal played the audio recording, which had previously circulated on social media and been reported by several international outlets. In it, Hasina is heard instructing the use of “lethal weapons” and to “shoot them on sight” in reference to anti-government demonstrators.
The BBC earlier reported that prosecutors planned to use the leaked call as key evidence. In July 2024, BBC investigators verified one of the leaked audios as authentic.
Al Jazeera also verified separate recordings in which Hasina allegedly instructed her nephew Taposh to deploy harsh measures, including the use of helicopters to disperse crowds.
The tribunal has attributed around 1,400 deaths and 20,000 injuries to the violent crackdown during the July–August 2024 uprising, which forced Hasina from office. She fled to India on August 5, where she has since remained.
One of the leaked calls, recorded by the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre on 18 July, quoted Hasina as saying: “My order has already been given. Now they will use lethal weapons, they will shoot wherever they find protesters.”
The revelations form a central part of the prosecution’s case, which accuses Hasina and her close associates of authorising crimes against humanity in their bid to suppress the mass movement that toppled her government.