New Delhi, Jan 17, (.) Bangladesh’s former foreign minister Hasan Mahmud on Saturday vowed that his party “would come back to power” with “Sheikh Hasina leading the government”, while strongly criticised a UNHCR report on the July–August 2024 student movement, calling it “highly biased”.
Mahmud who was speaking at a press conference, the first of its kind organised by the Awami League leaders in Delhi, told reporters in reply to a question on whether his party was considering forming a government in exile, that “we will return to Bangladesh with Sheikh Hasina leading us” to form a government.
The former foreign minister also pointed out that “hundreds of journalists have been arrested on flimsy charges, newspaper offices and cultural organisations have been attacked, some one lakh Awami leaguers are in jail and minorities have been systematically attacked and killed after the new, illegal regime took over”.
Mahmud also criticised the elections which are poised to be held next month in Bangladesh, calling it “one-sided” as Awami League which he claimed has a support of nearly 60 per cent of the population is being denied a chance to fight it. “It is an arranged election and hardly free or fair,” Mahmud alleged.
Accusing the UNHCR of overlooking violence against members of the Awami League and security forces, Mahmud alleged that the report failed to account for the killing of thousands of police personnel during the unrest. He claimed that nearly 3,000 policemen were killed and cited an incident in which an entire police station, with about 40 officers inside, was set on fire.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) report, which the Awami League rebutted, was released a year back in February 2025. Mahmud also questioned the credibility of the casualty figures cited in the UN document, saying they were “one-sided” and lacked proper verification.
Mahmud said that many of those who were killed died of sniper fire, by agents who used guns of a calibre which the Bangladesh security forces did not have, hinting that foreign or enemy elements may have been behind the shootings.
“Our last hope was the UN, but we were failed in this…Usually a UNHCR report is done after a resolution by the UN Security council,” however, in this case UNHCR chief Volker Turk, whom Bangladesh’s interim chief advisor Mohammad Yunus describes as a friend, “went ahead with a report merely on the request of the Yunus government.”
He alleged that no stakeholders were consulted and that there was no clear provenance for the data. According to him, several individuals listed as having been killed in official gazettes issued by the Yunus administration were later found to be alive.
Mahmud, who was speaking along with Golam Maruf Majumdar Nijhoom, head of the legal team of the International Crimes Research Foundation, also said that the Awami League was in the process of compiling a comprehensive account of killings and atrocities committed since the August 2024 revolt till date.
He alleged that eight members of the Hindu community had been killed in the past two weeks alone. He said the party intended to submit its findings to the Office of the UNHCR, the European union and the Commonwealth Secretariat, urging them to either take action or independently verify the allegations.
The UNHCR report, which examined alleged human rights violations during the student-led protests, has drawn criticism from Awami League leaders, who argue that it focuses disproportionately on state actions while downplaying violence against party supporters and law enforcement agencies. The Yunus-led interim administration has not yet responded to the allegations. . JMB/JRC KK
