Last Updated on September 21, 2025 8:14 pm by INDIAN AWAAZ
Zakir Hossain / Dhaka
Nahid Islam, convener of the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP) and a key face of last year’s July Uprising, has demanded that Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League be tried as a political party for “crimes against humanity” committed during the movement that toppled her government.
Speaking after his testimony before Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Sunday, Nahid said: “The Awami League should be brought under trial as a party; there is such an opportunity. Since Sheikh Hasina, as party chief, decided to go against the people and kill them to cling to power, the people resisted and overthrew her. Therefore, politically, this is a crime committed by the Awami League as a party.”
Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam backed the idea, saying the law allows prosecution of political organisations. “Evidence clearly establishes the involvement of the Awami League and its wings—Jubo League, Chhatra League, Swechchhasebak League, and the 14-party alliance. Therefore, we will consider this matter, including the question of banning the Awami League,” he said. He added that complaints from victims’ families would strengthen the case.
Nahid, the 47th witness in the trial against Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, dismissed allegations of foreign instigation. “It was a people’s uprising. People took to the streets spontaneously, resisted with their lives, and succeeded. Sheikh Hasina and others fled the country, fearing justice,” he said.
Hasina’s state-appointed defence counsel, Md Amir Hossain, rejected the testimony, claiming she did not resign but was forced to flee to India on August 5, 2024. He argued the movement was “long-planned” with “domestic and foreign forces” behind it. He further insisted, “Hasina never ordered the use of helicopters or lethal weapons. No crimes against humanity were committed, and therefore the accused are not guilty.”
Prosecutors objected to the defence invoking Dr Muhammad Yunus, who now heads the interim government, as irrelevant to the case. Nahid, however, reiterated that his testimony was based on eyewitness accounts and coordinators’ reports of killings and atrocities on August 5.
The tribunal, led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, framed charges in July and continues hearing testimonies in the landmark case.