Prosecution Seeks Formal Charges Against Sheikh Hasina Over 2016 Kalyanpur Raid Deaths

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Prosecutors at the International Crimes Tribunal-1 filed a formal application on Tuesday to charge ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and seven others with crimes against humanity. The charges center on a 2016 police operation at a residence in Dhaka’s Kalyanpur, known as the “Jahaj Bari,” which prosecutors allege was a staged encounter used to execute nine young men.

Among the eight defendants, former Inspector General of Police A.K.M. Shahidul Haque and former Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia have been arrested and currently remain in custody. Both men were brought before the tribunal during Tuesday’s proceedings to face the formal indictment request.

In addition to Sheikh Hasina, the state’s petition names former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and several high-ranking former police officials, including former Additional Commissioner Sheikh Muhammad Maruf Hasan, former Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime chief Md. Monirul Islam, and former Joint Commissioners Krishna Pada Roy and Md. Abdul Baten. These six individuals remain at large.

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The allegations stem from an incident on July 25, 2016, when special police units, including the SWAT team and the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit, conducted a raid on the Kalyanpur apartment building. Prosecutors contend that the security forces held the nine victims captive before shooting them to death. Following the operation, authorities publicly claimed the victims were militants killed during a confrontation, a narrative the prosecution now asserts was fabricated to conceal an extrajudicial mass killing.