Simon Fraser
Editor in Asia, BBC News website
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The violence of last year has been the worst in Bangladesh since his 1971 independence war
Up to 1,400 people were killed during last year’s anti -government demonstrations in Bangladesh, most of the security forces, the United Nations said.
UN Human Rights investigators accuse Sheikh Hasina’s fallen government of a brutal response that they warn could equip “crimes against humanity”.
They found “an official policy to attack and violently suppress the demonstrators and the anti -government sympathizers”, calculated to hang on to power in the face of the mass opposition.
Sheikh Hasina, who had been in office for 15 years, fled by helicopter in India shortly before the crowds storm his residence.
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Demonstrations led by students against employment quotas have turned into mass demonstrations after a bloody police repression
Thousands of others were injured in the worst violence that Bangladesh has seen since his war of independence in 1971.
Demonstrations led by students against quotas in public service jobs have transformed into a country movement to oust Ms. Hasina and her party of the Awami League after a repression of the brutal police.
UN investigators documented the shooting at the Point Blank range of certain demonstrators, the deliberate mutilation of others, arbitrary arrests and torture.
Children were also targeted – the report estimates that 13% of the 1,400 people killed were children.
The report was requested by the chief of the Bangladesh goalkeeper Muhammad Yunus.
Although it attributes most of the violence to government security forces, it also raises concerns about attacks against people perceived as supporters of the former government and against certain religious and ethnic groups.
These must also be studied, says the UN.
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Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant against Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India
