Bangladesh: New video and photo evidence confirm police used unlawful lethal weapons against protesters

Verified videos reveal violent murder of student protester

200 people killed and thousands injured since start of crackdown against student protests

Authorities must lift the shoot-on-sight orders, fully restore internet access and end the use of army and paramilitary forces in the policing of protests

‘These repressive measures are a deliberate attempt to crush both these protests and any future dissent’ - Deprose Muchena

Bangladeshi authorities have continued to use unlawful force against student protesters amid six days of shutdown and communication restrictions during the quota-reform protest across the country, said Amnesty International today as it released a second part to its evidence analysis series.

Amnesty has responded to the evolving situation through verification and analysis of available video and photographic evidence, including its Crisis Evidence Lab verifying videos of three incidents of unlawful use of lethal and less lethal weapons by law enforcement agencies while policing the protests as detailed below.

Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Senior Director, said:

“The continued verification and analysis of video and photographic evidence that is trickling out of Bangladesh provides a grim picture.

“The egregious human rights records of the Bangladeshi government and the Rapid Action Battalion, which has been deployed to police the protests, provides little reassurance that the protesters’ rights will be protected in the absence of active international monitoring with internet and communication restrictions still partially in place.

“The authorities must immediately lift the shoot-on-sight orders, fully restore internet access across the country and end the use of army and paramilitary forces in the policing of protests.

“They must also guarantee that shoot-on-sight curfew orders and internet shutdowns will not be used in the future. These repressive measures are a deliberate attempt to crush both these protests and any future dissent.

“An independent and impartial investigation into all human rights violations committed by security forces, including the high death toll of protesters, must urgently be conducted and all those found responsible must be held fully accountable. Victims of unlawful police use of force, including those who have been injured and family members of those who have been killed, must also receive full reparations from the state.”

Callously killed

On 18 July, videos surfaced on social media of a protester, later identified as Shykh Aashhabul Yamin, a student at the Military Institute of Science and Technology, who was reportedly injured and killed during clashes with police officers at a protest near a bus station in Savar, near the capital Dhaka.

The first video shows an armoured personnel carrier driving down the Dhaka-Aricha Highway with the Yamin - who is unconscious - on top. A second video shows an officer lifting Yamin by the arms while another officer grabs him by the legs and violently yanks him up and then drops him off the vehicle, causing his head to hit the pavement as his body falls. 

The final video begins with two officers in full riot gear stepping out of the vehicle and seemingly looking down at Yamin’s body on the ground in front of them, they then pull him up and toss his body over the road’s median barriers, dropping him on the other side next to another group of officers. Eventually the armoured personnel carrier drives away leaving Yamin’s body in the road. News reports claim that Yamin died later that day from his injuries.

In the three videos verified by Amnesty, none of the 12 officers visible attempted to provide medical aid to Yamin. Derrick Pounder, an independent forensic pathologist who examined photographic evidence of the wounds on Yamin’s chest, told Amnesty that the cause of his death could reasonably be presumed to have been from birdshot pellet injuries on the left front of his chest. Amnesty considers the use of birdshot to be completely inappropriate for law enforcement and should never be used in the policing of protest.

Tear gas attack on university

In another video posted on 18 July, an officer fires tear gas through a closed gate at BRAC University in Dhaka where violent clashes took place between police and student protesters. A video filmed from inside the university suggests that a crowd of student protesters were gathered on the other side of an enclosed courtyard as a police officer fired into the crowds through the university gates.

In these videos, verified by Amnesty, the actions of the police officer clearly constitute unlawful and unnecessary use of force. Law enforcement must never fire tear gas into an enclosed space with no obvious means of escape from the effects of chemical irritant. Local news reports claim that at least 30 people suffered injuries due to the use of tear gas on BRAC University’s campus.

Use of lethal firearms

A video clip circulating on social media since 20 July shows an officer firing an AK-pattern assault rifle during the protests. The seven-second video verified by Amnesty was filmed in front of a bank on DIT Road in Dhaka’s Rampura neighbourhood. It shows several officers from the Bangladesh Police and Border Guard Bangladesh standing alongside an armoured personnel carrier, one of the officers points a Chinese-type 56-1 assault rifle towards off-screen targets and fires two rounds.

Firearms are not an appropriate tool for policing assemblies - they must only be used when strictly necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury.

In another video, also filmed in Rampura sometime on or before 19 July, police officers in full riot gear are seen marching down a road alongside an armoured personnel carrier equipped with 12-gauge shotguns and 37/38mm grenade launchers. Some of the police officers fire multiple shots from shotguns at off-screen targets.

Hundreds killed, thousands injured

According to media reports nearly 200 people have died, several thousand injured 2,500 people arrested since the protests became deadly on 16 July. Other reports state 61,000 have been charged with violence related to the protests.

On 23 July, nationwide internet access was partially restored after six days of complete shutdown amidst a volatile period marked by violent crackdown on protesters, the deployment of the army, a curfew and the issuing of shoot-on-sight orders. The limited information coming out of the country has been an impediment to human rights monitoring.

* Viewer discretion is advised in opening links to the videos showing violence