Leaked Calls Reveal Hasina Ordered Lethal Crackdown on Bangladesh Protesters
So, something truly shocking has come to light about Bangladesh’s recent political history. Al Jazeera’s investigative unit just dropped a major exposé, revealing secret phone recordings that suggest former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina personally ordered security forces to fire on student protesters during the massive unrest in July 2024. Yes, you heard that right—this wasn’t just chaos on the streets. According to the recordings, it was ordered from the very top.
The protests began peacefully in June 2024, mainly led by students upset over the reinstatement of a controversial quota system in government jobs. Many believed it unfairly benefited the ruling Awami League’s supporters at the cost of merit-based candidates. But things took a tragic and violent turn after a student named Abu Sayed was shot and killed by police in Rangpur. That moment lit the match, and protests erupted nationwide.
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Now here’s where it gets explosive—recordings obtained from Bangladesh's own surveillance network show Hasina telling her ally, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, that she had issued what she called an "open order" to use lethal weapons. She says plainly, "Shoot wherever they find them." Even helicopters were reportedly used to fire at gatherings from above, with a doctor from Dhaka confirming that many of the bullet wounds on injured protesters were consistent with being shot from the air.
Al Jazeera had forensic experts examine the tapes, and they confirmed the voices and ruled out AI tampering. The situation was so extreme that by the time Hasina resigned and fled to India on August 5, nearly 1,400 people had been killed and over 20,000 wounded.
What’s even more disturbing is how the government allegedly tried to cover it all up. In another leaked call, Hasina’s economic adviser, Salman F Rahman, is heard demanding Abu Sayed’s postmortem report. Doctors say police forced them to rewrite it multiple times to remove any mention of gunshot wounds, trying to claim he died from stone-throwing injuries. Sayed’s family was later flown to Dhaka and pressured to appear with Hasina on national TV—likely as a PR move—where they were given money and promises of justice.
Hasina’s party has responded, denying she ever used the phrase “lethal weapons,” and claiming the recordings are either fake or manipulated. But prosecutors say these calls will likely be used in the upcoming international war crimes trial against her and several of her top officials.
If all of this holds up in court, it would mean that not only did the government violently suppress dissent, but they also tried to erase the evidence and silence the victims. This investigation really paints a chilling picture of how far a regime might go to cling to power.
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