Dhaka, Aug 27 (PTI) Bangladesh’s Home Affairs Advisor Lt Gen (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury on Tuesday assured a UN fact-finding team that his ministry would provide full cooperation for a fair investigation into the crimes and acts against humanity in the country during the last two months, according to a media report.
“We will cooperate completely with the United Nations fact-finding team to probe into the matters in an independent, full, fair and neutral manner,” the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the official news agency of the country, quoted him as saying.
He said the interim government will fully cooperate with the UN team for the investigation into the crimes and acts against humanity in the last two months from June 5 to August 5.
Chowdhury made the remarks while briefing the reporters after coming out from a meeting with a three-member delegation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) led by the chief of its Asia-Pacific region Rory Mungoven held at the ministry.
This is the first time the UN is sending a fact-finding mission to Bangladesh since its independence in 1971 to investigate widespread human rights abuses in the country ahead of and in the aftermath of Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as the prime minister on August 5.
The 71-year-old former army officer said a record number of personnel from the military and other law enforcement agencies have been deployed in UN peacekeeping missions, calling upon the UN delegation to extend required cooperation as Bangladesh can maintain the number one position in the mission in terms of numbers.
Mungoven urged the law enforcement agencies under the Home Ministry to preserve the “real data and facts regarding the criminals and acts against human rights committed during the anti-discrimination student movement and to help the UN fact-finding team to provide those when they ask for”.
Meanwhile, the United Nations is confident that the interim government in Bangladesh will do whatever it can to ensure that the rule of law and justice is followed, The Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.
The spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric made the remarks when asked about the murder case filed against Bangladesh cricketer Shakib Al Hasan during a regular briefing on Monday.
“We have no doubt that the interim authorities in Bangladesh, who are taking over at an extremely challenging time for the country, both politically and on the humanitarian end, will do whatever they can to ensure that the rule of law and justice is followed,” the spokesperson said.
There were criticisms on social media about the case as Shakib was abroad during the students’ movement that toppled the Sheikh Hasina government.
Shakib was elected to Parliament on an Awami League ticket in the January elections, which the main opposition BNP boycotted.
Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India on August 5 after unprecedented anti-government student-led protests against her government over a controversial quota system in jobs.
The Hasina-led government was replaced by an interim government, and 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was named its Chief Adviser.
Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government, taking the death toll to more than 600 since the massive protest by students against a controversial quota system in government jobs first started in mid-July.
Five more murder cases have been filed against Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Hasina taking the total number of cases filed against the Awami League leader to 71, a media report said on Tuesday.
Four of the new cases were filed in Dhaka and one in Rajshahi against the 76-year-old deposed former prime minister, several former ministers and police officials, The Daily Star newspaper reported. PTI GSP AKJ GSP
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