A damning new report by the BBC has revealed audio recordings that allegedly implicate former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in ordering a deadly crackdown during the 2024 student-led protests. The BBC Eye Investigations team analysed the leaked recordings, which appear to capture Hasina authorising security forces to “use lethal weapons” against demonstrators and to “shoot wherever they find them”.
According to the United Nations, up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 as the government responded violently to mass protests demanding reform of a controversial public sector job quota system. The crackdown marked one of the bloodiest episodes in Bangladesh’s recent history.
The audio, dated July 18, 2024, has been forensically examined and found to be genuine, with experts concluding it was highly unlikely to have been edited or synthetically generated. Bangladeshi police have also confirmed that the voice matches verified recordings of Hasina.
Hasina, 77, fled to India as the protests escalated and has refused to return to Bangladesh, where she is being tried in absentia for crimes against humanity. Her trial officially began on June 1, 2025. On July 2, she was separately convicted of contempt of court and sentenced to six months in prison.
Despite the mounting evidence, Hasina’s legal representatives appointed by the state due to her absence deny the charges, claiming they have had no contact with her. Her now-banned political party, the Awami League, has also rejected the accusations, insisting that the violence was due to breakdowns in discipline among security forces, not top-level orders.
The protests, which began on July 1, 2024, were initially seen as unlikely to succeed against Hasina’s long-standing rule. However, the government’s heavy-handed response only fueled the movement, eventually forcing Hasina to flee the country.
This development represents a dramatic reversal for a leader who had ruled Bangladesh for over a decade, and whose authoritarian style left little room for dissent. The outcome of Hasina’s ongoing trial will be closely watched both within Bangladesh and by the international community.