A court in Bangladesh has initiated a murder investigation against the ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina and six senior figures from her administration on Tuesday, following the police killing of a man during civil unrest last month.<\/p>\n
Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India a week ago, where she remains, as protesters flooded the streets of Dhaka, bringing her iron-fisted rule to a dramatic end.
\nOver 450 people were killed during the weeks of unrest leading up to her removal from power.<\/p>\n
\u201cA case has been filed against Sheikh Hasina and six others,\u201d said Mamun Mia, a lawyer who brought the case on behalf of a private citizen.<\/p>\n
He added that the Dhaka Metropolitan Court had ordered the police to accept \u201cthe murder case against the accused persons,\u201d the first step in a criminal investigation under Bangladeshi law.<\/p>\n
Mia\u2019s filing with the court also named Hasina\u2019s former Home Minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, and Obaidul Quader, the General Secretary of Hasina\u2019s Awami League party.<\/p>\n
It also names four senior police officers appointed by Hasina\u2019s government, who have since vacated their posts.
\nThe case accuses the seven of responsibility for the death of a grocery store owner who was shot dead on 19th July by police violently suppressing protests.<\/p>\n
The Daily Star newspaper reported that the case was brought on behalf of Amir Hamza Shatil, a resident of the neighbourhood where the shooting occurred and a \u201cwell-wisher\u201d of the victim.<\/p>\n
Hasina\u2019s government faced accusations of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.<\/p>\n
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus returned from Europe three days after Hasina\u2019s ouster to lead a temporary administration tasked with the monumental challenge of steering democratic reforms.<\/p>\n
The 84-year-old won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance and is credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis escape grinding poverty.<\/p>\n
He assumed office as \u201cchief adviser\u201d to a caretaker administration, composed of civilians except for the Home Minister, Sakhawat Hossain, a retired brigadier general. Yunus has expressed his intention to hold elections \u201cwithin a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hossain stated on Monday that the government had no plans to ban Hasina\u2019s Awami League, which played a pivotal role in the country\u2019s independence movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe party has made many contributions to Bangladesh\u2014we don\u2019t deny this,\u201d he told reporters on Monday.
\n\u201cWhen the election comes, they should contest the elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFP has contacted the caretaker administration for comment.<\/p>\n
AFP\/Punch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A court in Bangladesh has initiated a murder investigation against the ousted ex-premier Sheikh Hasina and six senior figures from her administration on Tuesday, following the police killing of a man during civil unrest last month. Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter to neighbouring India a week ago, where she remains, as protesters flooded the streets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":85998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-foreign-jurisdiction"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t