Former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina faces murder charges after ouster

Dhaka: A murder case has been filed against Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and six others following the death of a grocery shop owner during violent clashes last month, which led to her government's downfall.

The case was the first to be filed against Hasina, 76, after she resigned and fled to India last week following widespread protests against her Awami League-led government over a controversial job quota system.

The case was filed by a well-wisher of the grocery store owner Abu Sayed, who was killed on July 19 in police firing during a procession in support of the quota reform movement in Mohammadpur, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

The other accused are Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, among others. Besides, several unnamed high-ranking police officials and government officials were also accused in the case, according to the report.

Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 since the anti-quota protests first started in mid-July. An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led government, and its Chief Adviser, 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, announced the portfolios of his 16-member council of advisors last week.

On Monday, seven political parties, including the Awami League's arch-rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), met Yunus separately and said the interim government could take the time necessary to create a conducive environment for holding free and fair elections, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

"We have given this interim government the time required to create a proper environment for holding an election," the report quoted BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as saying. He said they did not discuss the election and that the BNP did not mention any specific time frame for holding the next election. The BNP was extending its full support to all the activities of the interim government, he said.

Quoting sources, the report said that the party urged the Yunus to have all the cases against its leaders, including those against party chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman, withdrawn. Former prime minister Zia, 79, was released from jail after Hasina's ouster. She was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018.

Input from PTI