The political leadership ordered the use of excessive police force during the July uprising, Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the world’s most respected human rights groups, said in a report released recently.

“Multiple police officers indicated that they believed that directives to use excessive force during the uprising came from political leadership,” the report said.

An HRW delegation, led by its Asia Director Elaine Pearson, handed over the 50-page report titled “After the Monsoon Revolution: A Roadmap to Lasting Security Sector Reform in Bangladesh” to Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on January 28.

In an interview with HRW, a police officer said, “I believe that during the unrest, the role of the police was determined more by political leaders than by the officers in the field.”

One police officer told it, “The police also shot at onlookers observing the scene from their homes, intending to create fear and send a message that people should not watch what was happening around them.”

Police officers described receiving both explicit and implicit orders throughout the protests to use lethal force, the report said.

One officer explained: “Senior officers ordered us to be strict and not to spare any criminals spreading anarchy.”

They did not explicitly use the word “fire,” but their instructions were clear: Apply the highest force, do whatever you think is necessary to control the situation, and take a hardline approach, the report said.         

The same officer also described witnessing more explicit directives.

He said senior officers from Dhaka Metropolitan Police headquarters would watch live CCTV footage and direct officers on the ground to shoot like “they were ordering someone to shoot in a video game.”

The police officer said as he understood it, then Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun gave directives to the DMP Commissioner Habibur Rahman, who instructed the deputy commissioners.

This hierarchy of command is consistent with Bangladesh’s police structure and reporting lines leading up to the home minister, the HRW report said.

A video in August showed a police officer in Dhaka defending police actions and telling the home minister about the protesters’ persistence: “We shoot one dead, or we wound one, and that is the only one that falls. The rest don’t budge, sir.”

On 26 July 2024, six coordinators of the student movement were abducted by plain-clothes police after they went to a hospital in Dhaka to treat injuries sustained because of excessive force by police or attacks from Awami League supporters, the report said.

They were held incommunicado for a week and were “reportedly forced to issue a video statement announcing the end of the protest movement” before they were released on 1 August, it said.

On 5 August, Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.

In some cases, police also fuelled chaos and violence after 5 August, according to the HRW.

“For instance, on 5 August, in Ashulia, police set fire to vehicles carrying dead and injured protesters. At least one person, according to an eyewitness, was burned alive in handcuffs,” it said.

Razia Begum, 55, who witnessed the events, said, “This was the first time in my life that I saw innocent people burned alive this way.”

She said when neighbours saw the flames they ran to put out the fire but police turned on them and began shooting.

“The roads were covered with blood,” Razia said, adding that people were fatally shot directly in their bodies, not in their legs.