Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on Monday heard explosive allegations that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina personally ordered the execution of anti-government protesters during last year’s mass uprising, a claim prosecutors say is supported by a verbatim transcript of her phone conversation with the former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University.

Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam, opening the case over the August 5, 2024 killings in Dhaka’s Chankharpul area, where six people were shot dead, told the court the transcript provides “direct evidence of premeditated crimes against humanity.”

Prosecutors allege the shootings followed an intentional chain of command from the highest levels of government to police on the ground.

According to Tajul Islam, the recording captures a July 14, 2024 exchange in which Hasina assured then–Vice-Chancellor A S M Maksud Kamal that her forces would protect his residence from student protesters.

She was found saying: “The Rajakars were hanged, I will do the same to them. I will not spare even one… In England, when student politics turned violent, they didn’t hesitate to kill some of them.” Kamal replied that he would later expel those causing unrest from the university.

The prosecution also cited a July 18, 2024 wireless message allegedly sent by then–Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman, instructing officers to “take kneeling position and fire below the waist to control the situation.”

On August 5, prosecutors say, 40–45 officers were deployed in Chankharpul under senior supervision, with Constables Sujan Hossain, Imaaz Hossain, and Nasirul Islam carrying out the fatal shootings.

Tajul Islam told the court a separate call between Hasina and former Dhaka mayor Fazle Noor Taposh indicated she had ordered the use of helicopters, drones, and lethal weapons to crush protests.

The first witness, Shahriar Khan, father of 17-year-old victim Shahariar Khan Anas, testified that his son left a note before joining the protest urging his mother to “be proud” if he did not return.

His body was later found at Mitford Hospital, buried without autopsy and “with shahidi honor.”

Eight former police officers are charged in the Chankharpul case, four of them in custody and four at large.

In a parallel case, Hasina faces charges alongside former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and ex–Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, now a state witness.

Presiding Judge Md Golam Mortuza Mojumdar and two other tribunal members are overseeing the trial, which prosecutors describe as resting on “a solid foundation of direct and corroborated evidence.”

If proven, the July 14 conversation could become “one of the most damning pieces linking a former Bangladeshi head of government to the targeted killing of citizens” during a pro-democracy movement, said a senior lawyer who preferred to be unnamed.

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