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Published : 18 Jul 2025, 12:58 AM
Only 12 chargesheets have so far been submitted in more than a thousand criminal cases filed over the killings and repression that occurred during the mass uprising in July-August last year.
In a media statement on Thursday night, police said of the dozen cases where charges were pressed, three are murder cases, while the rest are under other penal codes.
The statement, however, did not include the total number of cases filed in connection with the July–August crackdown or the dates on which the chargesheets were submitted.
All three murder cases in which chargesheets were filed are from the Sherpur district.
The other cases include one each under the jurisdiction of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and Barishal Metropolitan Police, three from Chapainawabganj district, and two each from Sirajganj district and the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).
Separately, more than 50 cases of crimes against humanity were lodged with the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). Among those, four cases have reached the chargesheet stage, and two are now in trial. Deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been accused in one of the ICT cases.
The July Uprising began as a student-led movement demanding reforms in the government quota system for public sector jobs. But it soon escalated into a nationwide anti-government revolt.
On Aug 5, the movement culminated in the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-and-a-half-year rule. She fled to India amid intense public fury and a decline in state control.
The uprising, which had started at Dhaka University, quickly spread to campuses and towns across the country. In response, the government resorted to overwhelming force -- rubber bullets, live fire, tear gas, and mass arrests.
As the protests gathered momentum, the authorities imposed a blanket internet shutdown, hoping to choke off mobilisation and coordination. But that move only intensified public anger.
Within 20 days of the first protester’s death, the regime collapsed under the weight of public outrage and bloodshed.
According to an official gazette issued by the interim government, 834 people were declared “martyrs” of the Uprising. But a UN fact-finding mission investigating the crackdown has suggested that over 1,400 people may have been killed between Jul 1 and Aug 15.
Following the government’s fall, cases were filed in police stations across the country accusing Hasina and her cabinet colleagues, as well as senior Awami League leaders, of mass killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and other serious crimes.
Thursday’s police statement said that senior police officers are overseeing the investigations to ensure that the ongoing cases are “properly and fairly” pursued.
