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Published : 18 May 2025, 08:21 PM
A lawyer has filed a case against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 31 others, accusing them of involvement in an attempted assassination during the 2018 protests over Bangladesh's government job quota system.
The case, submitted by Md Ekramul Haque, was filed on Sunday in the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Monirul Islam.
Following a hearing, the court instructed Shahbagh Police Station to investigate the allegations and report within seven working days on whether a criminal case or general diary entry had been previously lodged in connection with the incident.
Among those named in the case are former cabinet ministers Asaduzzaman Khan, Obaidul Quader, Hasan Mahmud, and Qamrul Islam, alongside ruling party figures such as Mahbub Ul Haque Hanif and Mohammad A Arafat Rahman.
The complaint also implicates former senior officials in law enforcement and academia, including ex-inspector general of police Javed Patwary, former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, and former Dhaka University proctor AKM Golam Rabbani.
According to the complaint, Haque was a law student at Dhaka University during the 2018 student movement that sought to abolish the quota system in public sector recruitment.
He claims that under the directive of high-ranking political figures, ruling party student activists from the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) carried out violent attacks on student demonstrators using sharp weapons and batons.
Haque alleges he was assaulted near the university’s central library on May 20, 2018, left unconscious, and subsequently forced to leave his residential hall and return to his home village due to ongoing threats and intimidation.
Upon returning, he claimed to have learned of widespread attacks on students inside residential halls, allegedly coordinated by Chhatra League members with backing from political leadership.
The case comes amid the political upheaval that followed renewed student protests in July 2024, which escalated into a nationwide uprising.
Since then, hundreds of cases have been filed against Hasina, former minister and MPs and several Awami League leaders on charges of “murder, attempted murder, and crimes against humanity” in connection with the suppression of the protests.
Additionally, cases have been filed against them in various previous incidents.
