Sheikh Hasina charged over 2013 Hefazat rally crackdown deaths in Dhaka

Dhaka,UPDATED: Jul 27, 2026 17:16 IST

Bangladesh's Crimes Tribunal prosecution has filed formal charges against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 40 others in a crimes against humanity case linked to a police crackdown on a Hefazat-e-Islam rally in Dhaka in 2013. Several people were allegedly killed during the police action when Hasina's Awami League was in power.

The charges were submitted to the tribunal's registrar on Monday. The tribunal also issued arrest warrants for fugitives in the case, including the then army chief, other politicians and security officials, while nine accused, among them former ministers, senior police officers and journalists, are already in jail to face trial.

Chief prosecutor Aminul Islam told reporters, "The tribunal has taken into contingence charges against her (Hasina) and 40 others over the killings at Shapla Chattar during the Hefazat-e-Islam protest rally." Hasina, 78, was sentenced to death by the same tribunal in November last year after a trial in absentia for what was described as a superior role in taming a student-led protest that toppled her Awami League government in 2024. She fled to India and has been living there since August 5, 2024.

On May 5, 2013, Hefazat-e-Islam held a large rally in central Dhaka with police permission over its 13-point demand, mainly seeking a blasphemy law with tougher punishment for insulting Islam and revered figures. The group later turned the programme into an indefinite sit-in, defying a government order to leave the capital after the scheduled rally. During the gathering at Motijheel's Shapla Chattar, the Islamists burnt stalls selling religious books at the nearby Baitul Mokarram Mosque complex, set fire to 30 buses and 100 shops, and cut down scores of trees to build road barricades. Buildings housing several government offices, banks and the Communist Party office in the Purana Paltan area were also set on fire and damaged.

The then main opposition Bangladesh ist Party backed the Islamist group and asked its members to support the protesters with food and water. Law enforcement agencies later cleared the protesters from the city overnight. According to the chief prosecutor, tribunal investigators found that 58 people were killed in the police crackdown in Dhaka and four other districts on the night of May 5. Rights group Odhikar described it as a massacre. Human Rights Watch rejected claims of large-scale killings but said the security action caused loss of life, while Amnesty called for an independent and impartial investigation.

At the time, Hasina's Awami League government said up to 11 people, including five security personnel, had died as a direct result of clashes started by what it called violent protesters, stampedes, or attacks on public property and law enforcement. It also said several of the victims named by Odhikar were still alive and that many others were imaginary figures who never existed. The tribunal was set up in 2010 by the Hasina government to try collaborators of Pakistani troops during Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War, and the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus later amended the law to allow trials of Awami League leaders and officials on charges of crimes against humanity.

With PTI Inputs

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