Photo: Collected
The chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Muhammad Tajul Islam has said then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, during her visit to a hospital in late July 2024, had ordered the authorities not to provide treatment to any victims of mass uprising and not to give anyone release.
"We (prosecution) have visited the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedic Rehabilitation (Nitor), popularly known as Pongu Hospital, to talk to victims of the July-August mass uprising and their family members. The victims, who were taking treatment at the hospital, said Sheikh Hasina visited the institute (on July 27) and ordered doctors and hospital authorities 'no treatment', 'no release'," the ICT chief prosecutor said at a press briefing held at his office this noon.
Muhammad Tajul Islam said Hasina ordered the doctors not to provide treatment to any victims of the mass uprising and not to give anyone release, to ensure that one goes back to the streets to join the anti-government movement.
"The prosecution already received evidence in support of this claim. Apart from the patients at the hospital, the doctors too, have confirmed the matter to us. We have informed this to the tribunal today," he added.
Replying to a question from a reporter, the ICT chief prosecutor further said the hospital authorities could not conduct autopsies on the bodies of the July-August mass uprising martyrs and they did not provide death certificates following the order of the administration.
"Even after the killings in gunfire, the families of the victims were given death certificates, saying that their dear ones died of fever or any other disease. Police attacked the families that were trying to bury their loved ones or going to attend the burial," Muhammad Tajul Islam further said.
The ICT chief prosecutor said the tribunal quarried about the absence of postmortem reports as these are very important evidence, adding, "We have said the then authorities forced the family members of the martyrs to bury them in a hurry and did not provide any postmortem report. These are clear evidence of crimes against humanity."
Tajul said the prosecution would scrutinize all the evidence of Hasina's brutality following due process and submit those to the tribunal after processing those through forensic tests.
Messenger/JRTarek
