Al Jazeera has released a damning report alleging that former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered security forces to shoot student protesters during the 2024 uprising. 

The report is based on secret phone recordings obtained and forensically analyzed by the network's Investigative Unit (I-Unit).

Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 15 years before fleeing to India on August 5, 2024, is heard on tape saying, “Now they will use lethal weapons, shoot wherever they find them.” 

The statement, reportedly made during a call with Dhaka South Mayor and her relative, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, allegedly sanctioned the use of deadly force against peaceful demonstrators opposing a controversial job quota system.

The I-Unit's report, supported by voice-matching and audio forensic verification, includes statements from doctors, victims’ families, and prosecutors. 

Dr. Shabir Sharif, an emergency physician, claimed students arrived at his hospital with “unusual bullet wounds,” some allegedly inflicted from helicopter-fired rounds—an accusation security forces had earlier denied.

More explosively, audio captures another of Hasina’s advisers, Salman F Rahman, pressuring law enforcement for a sanitized post-mortem report on slain protester Abu Sayed. 

The original autopsy, according to hospital staff, was allegedly altered multiple times to remove mention of bullet injuries.

These recordings, gathered by Bangladesh’s own surveillance agency—the NTMC—are now poised to serve as primary evidence in trials led by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh. 

Hasina, two ministers, and top security officials face charges of crimes against humanity, with proceedings expected to begin in August.

The Awami League, in response, denied Hasina ever used the term “lethal weapons” and dismissed the recordings as “cherry-picked” or “doctored.”

But for many in Bangladesh, especially the victims’ families, these revelations mark a moment of reckoning. 

Sumi Khatun, sister of slain protester Abu Sayed, confronted Hasina during a televised event: “It was shown in the video that the police shot him. What is there to investigate here? Coming here was a mistake.”

Al Jazeera’s investigation raises profound questions about state violence, impunity, and the ethics of power in a post-autocratic Bangladesh.

MSK/SMS