Murder case filed against former Bangladesh PM

A murder investigation has been opened against former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in connection with the killing of a man by police during civil unrest last month.

Six other senior figures from the previous government are also under investigation following weeks of deadly unrest in the capital Dhaka.

Mamun Mia, a lawyer who filed the case on behalf of a private citizen, said the Dhaka court had ordered the police to accept “murder charges against the accused”.

This is the first step of a criminal investigation under Bangladeshi law.

Ms Hasina resigned and left the country earlier this month, fleeing to New Delhi, India, after political unrest destabilised the government.

More than 400 people have been killed in weeks of student demonstrations against Ms Hasina. Many of them were killed by police on her orders.

Businessman Amir Hamza filed a murder charge in July after a local grocer, Abu Saeed, was shot in the head while crossing the street.

According to BBC Bangla, the man told the court that on July 19 the students were protesting peacefully and that the police had fired indiscriminately into the crowd.

Mr Hamza said he was not related to Mr Saeed, but that he had gone to court because Mr Saeed’s family did not have the financial means to bring the case.

“I am the first ordinary citizen who has shown the courage to take this legal action against Sheikh Hasina for her crimes. I will complete the case,” he told Reuters news agency.

Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury has ordered the police to investigate the case, the first to be filed against Ms Hasina since the protests began.

Among those under investigation is also the former Minister of Transport and Bridges Obaidul Quader.

Hasina’s government, in power for 15 years, has been accused of widespread human rights abuses and dogged by allegations of rampant corruption.

The most recent student protests began in early July, initially as peaceful demands by university students to abolish quotas for public sector jobs, but later evolved into a broader movement to overthrow the government.

Ms Hasina urged the police to crack down hard on the protesters, calling them “not students but terrorists bent on destabilising the nation”.

The new government, recently formed, includes many of the protesters and is led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.

Mrs. Hasina will return to the country when the elections are called, said his son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.