In Bangladesh protests were initiated by students against the government job quota system, under which top government jobs were reserved for the children of fighters in the Bangladesh Liberation War. Students argued that this system, was an excuse for the corrupt regime to unfairly favour party loyalists.

The demonstrations were primarily led by students, and resulted in significant disruptions across the country, including blockades of major roads, railways, and intersections in major cities like Dhaka, Chattogram, and Rajshahi which then spread all over the country. The protests escalated on 15 July 2024, with widespread clashes between demonstrators and police where it appears that the Police fired upon protestors, using live ammunition, upon the orders of the then Bangladeshi Government. Hundreds were killed. The government’s response to the protests, including violent crackdowns, the use of lethal force, and widespread arrests, further galvanized the demonstrators.

The actions of the Hasina regime against the students’ legitimate protests caused the aim of the protest to extend beyond their initial aims of reforming the quota system, to a demand to an end of her dictatorial government in Bangladesh. The masses involved increased exponentially, hundreds of thousands of people came out in the street together in different parts of the country, all with the same slogan, “one point, one demand, the government must resign.”

On 5 August 2024, faced with ever-growing protests Hasina, fled the country landing in India on Monday.
Under the Hasina regime, over 600 individuals were victims of enforced disappearances. These were people taken from their families and kept in secret detention, with the state denying that they were being held prisoner. One such individual was Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, Arman, who was abducted in August 2016, taken from his home by plain-clothes officers in front of his young family. Following the departure Hasina and her government, Arman and some other ‘disappeared’ were released to their families, however others were not so lucky. Hundreds killed in the Hasina regime’s shoot to kill policy against protestors lost their lives fighting for a democratic and free Bangladesh.

Although Bangladesh is in a position to re-establish the rule of law and democracy, without justice for the crimes against humanity committed against the ‘disappeared’, the student protestors, and others during the Hasina regime, the country will not be in a position to move forward and prevent similar occurrences in the future.
In relation to do this Justice for Bangladesh intends to:

• Request to UK Government to make ICC referral
• Collection of evidence to submit to the ICC Prosecutor
• Collection of Evidence and Submissions to domestic courts for universal jurisdiction prosecution
• Sanctions submission in relation to those involved in human rights abuses