Bangladesh court orders probe in murder case against ex-PM Sheikh Hasina

A court in Bangladesh has opened a murder investigation into former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and six top figures in her administration over the police killing of a man during civil unrest last month.

The chief metropolitan magistrate’s court in the capital, Dhaka, accepted the case on Tuesday after private citizen Amir Hamza filed a legal suit over the killing of grocer Abu Saeed, said Hamza’s lawyer Anwarul Islam.

Saeed was shot on July 19 as police fired on protesting students and other people demonstrating against quotas in government jobs in the Mohammadpur area of Dhaka.

Hamza said he was not related to Saeed but voluntarily approached the court because the family did not have the finances to file the case.

He blamed Hasina, who had called for strong action to quell the violence, for the police firing.

“I am the first ordinary citizen who showed the courage to take this legal step against Sheikh Hasina for her crimes. I will see the case to an end,” Hamza told the Reuters news agency.

The court also named former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of Hasina’s Awami League party, as well as four top police officers appointed by the government who have since vacated their posts.

Student leaders who led the protest movement have repeatedly called for the former prime minister to face trial for killings allegedly committed during her term, including during the recent protests.

The case is the first filed against Hasina following weeks of unrest that killed more than 300 people.

Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of thousands of her political opponents.

The 76-year-old leader fled by helicopter to neighbouring India on August 5.

Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus was sworn in last week as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government ahead of elections.