Sheikh Hasina / IANS

Stating that the "Gazette of Martyrs of the July Uprising 2024" published on January 15, 2025 by the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus and the student-led anti-discrimination movement put the number of deaths during the July-August 2024 uprising at much lower numbers than the report of the UNHCHR, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has approached the UN body asking it to issue a public retraction and correction regarding the figure of deaths documented in the report which said that 1,400 protestors were killed during the protests.

In an email to Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), the legal counsel to Sheikh Hasina has raised before the official, concerns about a fact-finding report published by the UNHCHR on 12 February 2025 with a title “Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh."

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Further, the counsel has said that given that the time frame of the fact-finding process was limited to alleged abuses between 1 July and 15th August, 2024, "it prevented the OHCHR from investigating on-going abuses committed by the interim government itself-including widespread violence against elected members of the Awami League and religious minorities- while echoing the false accusations that allowed it to usurp power through unconstitutional means."

As many as 522 incidents of communal violence took place in Bangladesh, according to an analysis by the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHCUC) which has said that these incidents include 61 cases of murder; 28 incidents of violence against women including rape and gangrape; 95 incidents involving attacks on places of worship, idol vandalism, looting, and arson; 21 incidents of occupation or attempted occupation of land belonging to places of worship; 102 incidents of attacks, vandalism, looting, and arson targeting homes and business establishments; 38 incidents of abduction, extortion demands, and torture; 47 incidents involving attacks, death threats, and torture; 36 incidents subjected to torture and arrest on allegations of so-called religious blasphemy; 66 incidents of forcible occupation of homes, land, and business establishments; and 29 other incidents.

The UNHCHR report  titled “Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh" says that "based on various credible sources of reported deaths, OHCHR received dates for killings for about 1100 out of a total 1450 reported cases. "From the daily death count for these 1100 cases, OHCHR extrapolated to an estimated total daily number of killings," it said.

Hasina's counsel has objected to this and said that "it had come to light – even based on the official records of the interim government that spread false and inflammatory information to justify the violent overthrow of Prime Minister Hasina’s government – that the fact-finding report’s conclusion that 1,400 protestors were killed during this period was highly inaccurate."

"The Official Gazette now confirms that the actual figure is about half of what is contained in the UN Report. Other more impartial reports put the figure even lower, at a fraction of the figure widely circulated. It is of serious concern that a UN Report has arrived at a conclusion that diverges so far from the truth. It puts into question the credibility of the fact-finding process and sets a disturbing precedent for the use of such erroneous findings for incitement and legitimisation of political violence. Accordingly, it is respectfully requested that your Office issue a correction and public retraction to set the record straight," the counsel has told the high commissioner.

Hasina's counsel further said that the "unfortunate situation appears to have resulted from the failure of the UN team to critically examine politicised allegations against Prime Minister Hasina."

The letter written by Hasina's counsel which is in possession with New India Abroad further states that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) conducted an “independent fact-finding inquiry into alleged human rights violations and abuses that occurred between 1 July and 15 August 2024” “at the invitation of the Interim Government of Bangladesh.”

"Since coming to power on 8 August 2024 the interim government led by Dr Muhammad Yunus has been implicated in committing widespread human rights abuses that have been documented by numerous NGOs and the subject of an Article 15 Communication in respect of crimes against humanity to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Moreover, Dr Yunus himself has explicitly acknowledged that the movement which led to ousting Sheikh Hasina was a carefully planned, disciplined operation rather than a spontaneous uprising. He identified his special assistant, Mahfuz Alam, as the mastermind behind the nationwide anti-government operation. The extent to which the OHCHR fact-finding mission to Bangladesh was under the influence of Dr Yunus and the interim government raises serious concerns about the impartiality and independence of the UN report in circumstances where the political opponents of Prime Minister Hasina evidently played a dominant role in facilitating the fact-finding process," the letter reads.

 "A further concern, as acknowledged by the report itself, is the temporal time frame of the fact-finding process, limited to alleged abuses between “1 July and 15 August 2024”. This plainly prevented the OHCHR from investigating on-going abuses committed by the interim government itself – including widespread violence against elected members of the Awami League and religious minorities – while echoing the false accusations that allowed it to usurp power through unconstitutional means," Hasina's counsel Steven Powles wrote in the letter. 

The counsel further said in the letter that "the number of casualties is closer to 834, or close to half the figure cited in the UN Report. Even the figure of 834 cannot be trusted because of the political motivations of the interim government. "For instance, the student-led anti-discrimination movement, which was opposed to the government of Sheikh Hasina, puts the number of deaths even lower at 650. The actual number is likely to be even lower, if there was an investigation based on independent and impartial sources," the letter quotes Powles as stating.

"It is of course a profound tragedy that so many people were killed amidst violent protests, and Sheikh Hasina’s government was in the process of establishing a commission of inquiry to investigate the disproportionate use of force by the police and security forces. The much higher figure, however, was used to exaggerate the nature and extent of the violence, and to portray Prime Minister Hasina as having ordered the mass-murder of peaceful protestors; an accusation that was central to the campaign to overthrow her government. That a report of your office has been used in this context to confirm manifestly false and inflammatory misinformation, and to legitimise the violent overthrow of the government, is unfortunate and sets a troubling precedent for the potential manipulation of the UN human rights procedures," the letter states.

It further said that considering the obvious and significant error in the number of claimed casualties in the report, and to ensure the integrity of the fact-finding process conducted by his office, Hasina's counsel has requested the OHCHR to issue a public retraction and correction of this aspect of the report regarding the figure of 1,400 protestors killed.

"This is necessary to ensure that the UN does not become an instrument for perpetuating a false narrative by misrepresenting the true picture of what actually occurred in Bangladesh in July/August 2024," the letter states.

 

Discover more at New India Abroad.