Police have found no evidence linking seven Awami League leaders and activists to the looting and deadly arson attack on a hotel owned by a senior party leader in Jashore on Aug. 5, 2024, and have asked a court to discharge them from the case.
Twenty-four people, including an Indonesian citizen, were killed after a mob looted and set fire to Zabeer International Hotel in the southwestern city on the day former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government fell.
Contemporary reports said the victims included hotel staff and guests, while firefighters said a mob initially obstructed their efforts to reach the burning building.
Investigating officer Kazi Babul Hossain, an inspector at Jashore Kotwali Police Station, recently submitted the final report to the court after a lengthy investigation.
He confirmed the development Wednesday evening, Sept. 30, saying investigators had found no evidence of direct involvement by the seven people who had been arrested as suspects at different stages of the investigation. Police have therefore requested that they be discharged from the case, he said. The court will decide whether to accept the final report.
The seven are Md Abdul Khalek, 65; Md Enamul Haque, 59; Abdur Rahman Shawon, 36; lawyer Syed Kabir Hossain Johnny, 41; S.M. Azhar Hossain Swapan, 52; Kazi Rabiul Hossain, also known as Bhaipo Rabiul, 31; and Md Emon Kazi, 26.
The final report said investigators questioned the suspects and reviewed witness accounts but found no evidence directly connecting them to the attack, according to reports on the police findings.
The case concerns one of the deadliest attacks on an Awami League-linked property during the violence that swept Bangladesh as the political order collapsed on Aug. 5, 2024.
After news of Hasina’s resignation and departure spread, mobs attacked Awami League leaders, activists, offices, homes and businesses in different parts of the country. Violence involving protesters, police and Awami League supporters also killed scores of people outside Dhaka that day.
Zabeer International, a luxury hotel on M.M. Ali Road at Chitra intersection in Jashore, belonged to Shahin Chakladar, general secretary of the Jashore district Awami League and a former member of parliament.
According to the case statement, unidentified assailants carrying gunpowder and petrol entered the hotel at around 3 p.m. on Aug. 5. They allegedly broke into its cash vault and stole BDT9 million before looting equipment and other property.
The complaint listed about 100 refrigerators, 100 smart televisions, two 450-kilovolt generators, furniture and goods from storage areas, a 1,000-kilovolt transformer and substation equipment, pressure pumps, equipment from a cyber station and fire-safety equipment among the items allegedly taken.
The attackers then set the building ablaze, according to the case. The fire spread through the multistory hotel, killing 24 people.
Contemporary reports confirmed that an Indonesian citizen was among the dead and that hotel employees and guests were among the victims. At least 23 other people were reported injured.
Fire Service officials said at the time that they were initially unable to begin firefighting operations because of obstruction by the mob. Bodies were later recovered from different floors of the hotel, with fire officials reporting that many victims died from suffocation.
Early reporting also described protesters or members of a crowd as having vandalized and torched the hotel following Hasina’s resignation. A local coordinator of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement publicly acknowledged the movement’s involvement..
Claims have also circulated that some people attempting to escape the hotel were assaulted outside and that BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami activists were involved. Contemporary Fire Service and the interim government controlled news reports described the attackers as a mob, protesters, unidentified arsonists or assailants.
On Aug. 18, 2024, Chakladar’s cousin Touhid Chakladar Fontu, a former chairman of Jashore Sadar Upazila, filed the case with Kotwali Police Station against 200 unidentified people.
The complaint alleged that valuable documents relating to Chakladar’s companies, furniture, electrical equipment, three elevators, window grilles and glass decorations were destroyed in the fire. It said the main building also sustained extensive damage that could not immediately be valued.
Police later arrested the seven Awami League figures as suspects. The investigation has now concluded that evidence did not establish their involvement, and investigators have sought their discharge. Police have also been unable to identify the people responsible for the attack, according to reporting on the final investigation.
The case now sits against a changed legal framework governing acts committed during the July-August 2024 uprising.
The Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration issued the July Mass Uprising (Protection and Liability Determination) Ordinance in January 2026, providing legal protection to participants for acts connected with the uprising. After the subsequent parliamentary election, the ordinance was replaced by the July Mass Uprising (Protection and Liability Determination) Act, 2026, passed by parliament in April.
The law provides for the withdrawal of civil and criminal cases brought against certified uprising participants because of their participation and generally bars new proceedings over protected acts.
Mass murder, arson, looting and other acts may also fall within the law’s protection where the government certifies proceedings as arising from participation in the uprising.
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