UN report: How Asaduzzaman used BGB as ‘strike force’, wanted more helicopters deployed

Former home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal used the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) as a strike force and even specifically demanded the deployment of more helicopters to scare protesters in the way that RAB had used them, according to a United Nations report.

Published today (12 February), the report - on human rights violations related to the July-August uprising - said quoting a senior official that on 18 July, the home minister chaired a meeting of the "Core Committee," attended by the heads of Police, RAB and BGB and intelligence leaders.

At the meeting, he told the BGB commander, in front of the other senior security sector leaders, to order the use of lethal force much more readily, as one of the meeting participants related to OHCHR. 

Senior official testimony also indicated that in a meeting held the next day, Hasina herself told security force officials to kill protesters to quell the protests and specifically demanded to "arrest the ringleaders of the protests, the troublemakers, kill them and hide their bodies." 

Obaidul Quader had also told reporters on 19 July that security forces had been given orders to "shoot on sight," an instruction "manifestly incompatible with international human rights standards", the report said.

Meanwhile, the home minister's "Core Committee" meetings were being held regularly, discussing strategic directives on the overall approach, deployments of forces, and specific operations of strategic importance.

The mass arbitrary arrest campaign, including the block raids it involved, was also elaborated in "Core Committee" meetings chaired by the minister. 

The reinforcement of orders to use lethal force was also rapidly reflected in developments on the ground: the number of reported deaths nearly tripled, according to OHCHR's estimate, from approximately 100 deaths on 18 July, to close to 300 deaths a day later, on 19 July.

According to the official report BGB provided to OHCHR, Kamal, on behalf of the Prime Minister, the Director-General of her Special Security Force and her Military and Security Advisor, provided verbal directives to "use maximum force."

The report also touched upon Kamal's visit to Jatrabari, a video of which went viral showing the minister being told by a police commander: "We shoot one dead, or we wound one, and that is the only one who falls. The rest do not budge."

Meanwhile, the BGB in its report to OHCHR that it had directed its troops only to use force in extreme cases of life-threatening situations and that its BGB troops had only fired warning shots, causing no casualties.

"This position is contradicted by the NSI report provided to OHCHR, which provides details on three killings by BGB and a potential fourth one, attributable either to the BGB or the Police." 

It also said first-hand testimony collected by OHCHR provided information on many more killings and injuries caused by BGB and police jointly firing lethal ammunition at protesters, including in Rampura and Badda, near Bangladesh TV, on 19 July.

Numerous witness accounts, medical information, ammunition impact analysis and photos obtained by OHCHR suggest, however, that the BGB and Bangladesh Police shot lethal ammunition with rifles and shotguns directly at crowds protesting and moving around in the area. 

In its recommendation on the BGB, the UN suggested limiting the functions of the Border Guards Bangladesh to border control issues and delineating their resources and legal powers accordingly.