2013 Shapla Chattar mass killings: Hefazat files complaint with ICT against Hasina

A complaint has been filed with the International Crimes Tribunal against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 49 named and several unnamed individuals in connection with the mass killings during Hefazat-e-Islam’s rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel, Dhaka, on May 5, 2013.

Hefazat-e-Islam leader Junaid Al Habib filed the complaint with the chief prosecutor of ICT on Tuesday. 

Prior to this, another complaint was filed at the tribunal on behalf of Mufti Harun Ijhar.

The complaint names former Sheikh Hasina, Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, former minister Rashed Khan Menon, former mayor of DSCC Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, former ministers Hasan Mahmud, Salman F Rahman and many others. 

On May 5, 2013, massive violence broke out around the Hefazat rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel, organized to press home its 13-point charter and supported by all opposition parties, including the BNP.

The law enforcers conducted a flush-out operation at midnight to vacate the area. Apart from Dhaka, police clashed with Hefazat workers in seven districts including Narayanganj, Bagerhat, Brahmanbaria.

Odhikar, a human rights organization, published a list of people allegedly killed during the Awami League-led government crackdown on May 5 and 6, 2013 centring a rally of Hefazat-e-Islam arranged at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel.  

“In 2013, Odhikar conducted a fact-finding mission into that massacre committed by the security forces and published a report with 61 deaths. Due to publishing that report, the Awami League government filed a case against the then Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and the Organization’s sitting Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan under section 57 of the draconian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, 2006 (amended 2009)”, said the Facebook post.