Bangladesh's ex-PM investigated for murder | BBC London | BBC news | BBC news live | BBC
A murder investigation has been opened into Bangladesh's former prime minister Sheikh Hasina over the police killing of a man during civil unrest.
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00:00A murder investigation has been opened into Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh
00:04Hasina over the police killing of a man during civil unrest. Six other top figures in the
00:10previous government are also being investigated following weeks of deadly unrest in the capital
00:15Dhaka. Ms Hasina resigned earlier this month, fleeing to neighbouring India, as calls grew for
00:22her to stand down. Just hours after the case was filed against her, she called for an investigation
00:28into the protests that led to her resignation. In her first public statement since she left the
00:34country, she asked for those involved to be identified and punished accordingly.
00:39More than 400 people were killed in weeks of student demonstrations culminating in the
00:44demands against Ms Hasina. Many of them were shot by the police, on her orders.
00:50Mamun Mia, a lawyer who brought the case against the former Prime Minister on behalf of a private
00:56citizen, said the court in Dhaka had ordered police to accept the murder case against the
01:00accused persons. This is the first step in a criminal investigation under Bangladeshi law.
01:07Businessman Amir Hamza applied to bring the murder case in July,
01:11after a local grocer Abu Saeed was shot in the head while crossing the road.
01:16He told a court that on the 19th of July, students were holding a peaceful protest,
01:21alleging police had fired indiscriminately on the crowd, according to BBC Bangla.
01:27Mr Hamza said he was not related to Mr Saeed but approached the court because the grocer's
01:32family did not have the finances to file the case. I am the first ordinary citizen who showed the
01:38courage to take this legal step against Sheikh Hasina for her crimes. I will see the case to
01:44an end, he told Reuters news agency. Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury ordered the police to investigate
01:50the case, the first to be brought against Ms Hasina since the protest started.
01:56The former Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader is among those being investigated.
02:02Ms Hasina's government, which was in power for 15 years, was accused of widespread human rights
02:07violations and dogged by allegations of rampant corruption. The student protests began in early
02:14July, starting out as peaceful demands to scrap quotas in civil service jobs, before transforming
02:20into a wider movement which toppled the government. Ms Hasina urged police to clamp down
02:25hard on the protesters, referring to them as, not students but terrorists who are out to destabilise
02:31the nation.