July Uprising murder probes expose fake plaintiffs, 'dead' man alive in Saudi Arabia

Investigators have also found cases naming people as suspects despite evidence they were nowhere near the crime scenes

Police investigations into several murder and attempted murder cases filed with police stations across Dhaka over the crackdown during the July Uprising have uncovered major inconsistencies, according to final investigation reports.

Investigators failed to trace complainants in some cases, while in another, a man listed as having been killed is alive and working abroad.

Other investigations found no evidence to support claims that people had been killed or injured in police gunfire.

Police reports have also found evidence that some people were named as accused despite being hundreds of kilometres away from the alleged crime scenes when the incidents took place.

The movement demanding reforms to the government job quota system in July 2024 triggered widespread unrest after attacks on protesters and killings.

Large-scale violence unfolded in Jatrabari, Uttara, Bosila in Mohammadpur and Rampura, where many people were killed.

The crackdown could not stop the protests turning into a mass uprising.

Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina left for India on Aug 5, 2024, leading to the fall of the then Awami League government.

A UN fact-finding mission has put the death toll from the uprising at around 1,400. The government's official gazette lists roughly 850 dead.

Figures from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Prosecution Division, current up to last August, show 707 cases were filed across 50 police stations in the capital over the Uprising, naming 5,079 accused in total.

Jatrabari Police Station recorded the highest number of cases, 19, followed by 16 at Paltan Model Police Station.

Hatirjheel and Bhatara stations logged seven cases each, Rampura five, while Uttara East and West, along with Airport and Dakshinkhan stations, together saw 13.

Of these, 126 cases remain under investigation, several naming the ousted premier Hasina, her ministers and MPs, and senior Awami League leaders as suspects.

Final reports have already been submitted to court in 19 cases. Investigators have flagged three of these as entirely "false" in their reports.

The remaining 16 turned up inconsistent information, mistaken identities, forged documents and accounts that did not match the facts on the ground.

An analysis of the reports filed in court says innocent people were made suspects in some cases over personal disputes, land conflicts or business rivalries, investigators found.

Allegations of blanket case filing and money changing hands around Uprising-related cases have previously surfaced in the media.

Hasina and several of her former ministers, MPs, Awami League leaders and a former police chief are being tried in absentia at the International Crimes Tribunal over killings and enforced disappearances linked to crimes against humanity.

She and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal have already been sentenced to death in one case, as have several former police officials in other cases.

The then interim government has banned the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the Awami League's student wing, as a "terrorist organisation" over its role in violence during the movement, along with a ban on the party's own activities.