BLOODSHED IN BANGLADESH

This report focuses in depth on just one day of the anti-government protests – 19th July 2024 – and paints a harrowing picture of families, feet literally soaked in blood, forced to search overflowing hospital morgues for their children shot by police. We were on the ground collecting evidence in Bangladesh days after the government fell and interviewed scores of families and eyewitnesses.

The report, launched jointly with the ITJP, says many of those killed were not even part of the protests, but bystanders and people who happened to live or work close to the shooting, which was completely indiscriminate. Estimates for the overall death toll during the weeks of protests range from 800 to 1500, and six months on, there is still no final death toll. The report, however, confirmed that on that day at least 148 people were killed, three times more than initially reported. At the time, the government blocked all international phone lines and access to the internet and deployed the army to impose a curfew, making it difficult to collect the information. Among the 148 casualties on 19th July, 40 were 18 years or under. Shockingly, 54 of the 148 killed on 19 July were shot in the head or throat.