The brutal crackdown on student protesters last year by Bangladesh’s former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, killed as many as 1,400 people, a toll much higher than previously estimated, according to a U.N. report issued on Wednesday.
Ms. Hasina’s violent response to the student-led revolt, which ultimately ended her 15-year rule, involved extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and torture, according to a U.N. fact-finding mission. The actions by Ms. Hasina and senior Bangladeshi officials possibly amounted to crimes against humanity, the U.N. report said.
“The testimonies and evidence we gathered paint a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings that are amongst the most serious violations of human rights, and which may also constitute international crimes,” Volker Türk, the U.N. human rights chief, said in a statement.
It is clear that “the top echelons of the former government were aware and in fact involved in the commission of very serious violations,” Mr. Türk told reporters. Abuses included torture and ill-treatment of children and sexual violence against women, he said.
Ms. Hasina fled to India in August as the student protesters descended on her home. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to harbor her as she uses her perch in India to intervene in Bangladesh’s politics, complicating the interim government’s efforts to rebuild the country’s democracy.
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