A central leader of Bangladesh’s National Citizen Party has publicly said protesters beat police officers until they bled during the July-August 2024 uprising, renewing questions over accountability for violence committed against law-enforcement personnel during the movement that toppled the Awami League government.
Zubairul Alam Manik, a central executive member of the NCP, made the remarks Wednesday afternoon at a mass rally at Chatari Chowmuhani Tunnel intersection in Anwara, Chattogram, marking the second anniversary of the uprising.
The rally was organized by an 11-party alliance demanding what it described as implementation of the uprising’s popular mandate and the establishment of democracy, justice, good governance and citizens’ rights.
Addressing local civil and police administrators, Manik said: “We want to ask the UNO and the OC: Did you not see what happened on July 26? Angry students and people set police stations on fire. The police are funded by the people, yet we beat those police until they bled. Did you not see that?”
The remark drew attention on social media because Manik used the first-person plural — “we” — while describing the beating of police officers.
He also said political change in Bangladesh had begun “through the blood of students and the people” and accused the upazila and police administrations of allowing what he described as opposing political forces to regain influence.
Manik further alleged favoritism in distributing government benefits, including Trading Corporation of Bangladesh commodities, Open Market Sale food assistance and family cards. He claimed students and other applicants were being asked to secure recommendations from political representatives for services and appointments.
“Not a single file moves without the MP’s word,” he alleged.
The gathering was chaired by Anwara Upazila Jamaat-e-Islami President Abdul Gani and conducted by upazila secretary Mohammad Abul Hasan Khoka. Leaders and activists of parties in the 11-party alliance attended.
Earlier controversial remarks by movement figures
Manik is not the first figure associated with the 2024 uprising to make public remarks appearing to acknowledge, defend or celebrate violent acts during the movement.
In January 2026, Mahdi Hasan, then Habiganj district member secretary of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, was arrested after a video recorded inside Shayestaganj Police Station went viral.
While confronting the officer-in-charge on January 1 over the detention of another man, Mahdi appeared to say: “We burned down Baniachang police station, and we set SI Santosh on fire.”
The statement referred to the August 5, 2024 attack on Baniachang Police Station, where Sub-Inspector Santosh Chowdhury was killed and the station was set on fire. Mahdi himself had uploaded the video to social media.
Another controversy followed in October 2024 after Hasib Al Islam, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, appeared on DBC television’s Projotne Bangladesh talk show.
Hasib said that if the Metro Rail had not been set on fire and police had not been killed, the “revolution” would not have been achieved so easily. The movement later issued him a show-cause notice.
He subsequently said his remarks had been presented incompletely and argued that his point was that “a revolution never happens by rules.”
The statements have contributed to a broader debate over whether violent acts attributed to uprising participants have received the same degree of scrutiny as allegations against people associated with the former government.
Police report 44 officers killed, more than 2,300 injured
Violence against police during the uprising was extensive.
According to figures Bangladesh Police provided to the UN fact-finding mission, 44 police officers were killed and 2,308 injured between July 1 and August 15, 2024.
Border Guard Bangladesh reported three personnel killed and 129 injured, Ansar and VDP reported three killed and 63 injured, while the Rapid Action Battalion reported two officers killed and 307 injured.
The Awami League has claimed the number of law-enforcement personnel killed or injured in attacks on police stations, prisons and government installations was much higher.
The UN report said that after Sheikh Hasina left Bangladesh on August 5, attacks on police stations intensified. Bangladesh Police told the UN that 450 of the country’s 639 police stations were destroyed or damaged.
However, a number of deadly attacks on police occurred before the fall of the government.
On August 4, at least 15 police personnel were killed at Enayetpur Police Station in Sirajganj.
At Jatrabari Police Station in Dhaka, the UN said a crowd attacked with petrol bombs, stormed, looted and burned the station after police had fired on protesters. Two RAB officers and at least four police and Ansar/VDP personnel were killed.
At Uttara East Police Station, four officers were killed after a crowd stormed the station following police firing. In Ashulia, at least three officers were lynched after police had killed protesters and burned bodies.
The OHCHR report said that in Jatrabari, Uttara and Ashulia, bloodied bodies of slain police officers were hung in public places.
The UN report also recorded 144 Awami League leaders and activists killed between July 1 and August 15, though OHCHR said it could not independently verify every case.
Legal protection for uprising participants
The debate over accountability took on added significance after the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government promulgated the July Mass Uprising (Protection and Liability Determination) Ordinance, 2026 in January, with retrospective effect from July 1, 2024.
The ordinance provided for withdrawal of civil and criminal cases arising from acts connected with the uprising and restricted new cases against officially recognized participants.
After the February 2026 election brought the BNP to power, the BNP-led parliament converted the ordinance into law without alteration on April 8, following a bill introduced by Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed.
The legal framework has raised questions in cases involving killings of police officers or civilians because the classification of an act as political resistance can determine whether criminal proceedings are allowed.
Broad prosecutions against former government-linked figures
The legal protection for uprising participants exists alongside extensive prosecutions of former Awami League government officials, police personnel and others accused of involvement in abuses during the former government’s tenure and the 2024 unrest.
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal have been convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal over the 2024 crackdown. Hasina, tried in absentia, was sentenced to death in November 2025. She has rejected the allegations and described the proceedings as politically motivated.
After the verdict, the UN stressed that accountability for international crimes must meet international fair-trial and due-process standards, particularly in cases involving trials in absentia and capital punishment.
The tribunal’s cases have extended beyond politicians.
Twenty-five serving and former military officers were formally charged in three ICT cases in October 2025 involving enforced disappearances, secret detention, torture and killings. Most of those allegations concern specific alleged acts rather than political support for the Awami League alone.
Former vice chancellor and other teachers of Begum Rokeya University, alongside police, were also prosecuted over the killing of student Abu Sayed in Rangpur.
On July 26, 2026, a complaint was lodged with the ICT seeking investigation of 28 actors, cultural figures, media personalities and journalists, including Asaduzzaman Noor, Ferdous Ahmed, Riaz Ahmed, Meher Afroz Shaon, Aruna Biswas, Shomi Kaiser and journalist Anis Alamgir.
ICT Chief Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam said: “We have received the complaint and are about to send it to the investigation agency.”
At that stage, the allegations remained a complaint seeking investigation and did not amount to formal charges or findings of guilt.
Journalists Farzana Rupa and Mozammel Babu have meanwhile been formally charged with Hasina and others in the Shapla Chattar crimes-against-humanity case.
Their prosecution has drawn criticism from the Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
CPJ Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator Kunal Majumder said in July that charging the two journalists with crimes against humanity for their journalistic work was “simply unacceptable.”
The organizations have argued that reporting, opinions or perceived political affiliation should not by themselves constitute international crimes.
Rights groups raise concerns over mass cases
According to information Bangladesh Police supplied to the UN mission, 1,181 investigations involved 98,137 accused people, including more than 25,000 instances in which political leaders were named.
OHCHR warned that mass cases had led to investigations and arrests of people with no legally relevant connection to alleged offenses and had diverted investigative resources from cases supported by stronger evidence.
The UN report also noted arrests of prominent journalists viewed as supportive of the Awami League and concerns that some cases had been framed too broadly.
OHCHR recommended that journalists, Awami League supporters, minority leaders and other dissenting voices not be subjected to arbitrary arrest, unsupported criminal cases or intimidation.
Dispute over death toll remains unresolved
A separate controversy concerns the number of people killed during the 2024 unrest.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Liberation War Affairs published a final government gazette in January 2025 identifying 834 people as “martyrs” of the uprising, with medical case IDs and family and address information.
Questions have been raised over whether some Awami League supporters killed during the violence and other deaths were included in that list.
OHCHR, however, estimated that as many as 1,400 people may have been killed in protest-related violence.
That figure was an estimate, not a verified name-by-name list.
The UN report said investigators compared Health Ministry data with lists from civil-society and other sources, removed duplicates and arrived at an estimate covering July 15 to August 5.
OHCHR acknowledged that it had not independently corroborated every individual death and could not presume that every death was attributable to the state or constituted an extrajudicial killing. It nevertheless concluded that most documented fatal firearm injuries appeared consistent with weapons commonly used by Bangladesh security forces.
The public report does not contain a complete list of 1,400 names. OHCHR said victim and witness information was preserved in a confidential evidence database.
Awami League figures have repeatedly demanded publication of the names.
Sheikh Hasina made such a demand in July 2025. In July 2026, Sajeeb Wazed repeated the call during an international seminar at Wolfson College, Oxford.
The discrepancy remains significant: the government gazette identifies 834 people, while the UN’s figure of up to 1,400 is based on multiple governmental, civil-society and confidential sources.
On July 15, ICT Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam said investigators had identified 834 victims while DNA and other work continued to identify additional people believed to have died during the uprising.
Accountability remains contested
Manik’s statement comes as Bangladesh continues to address violence from 2024 through different legal mechanisms.
Former government officials, law-enforcement commanders, politicians, military personnel, university administrators, journalists and cultural figures face complaints, arrests or international-crimes proceedings.
At the same time, recognized participants in the uprising benefit from statutory legal protection for acts determined to have constituted political resistance.
That difference does not determine the innocence or guilt of anyone facing prosecution, nor does it establish criminal responsibility for every uprising participant. Both require individualized evidence and fair judicial proceedings.
But Manik’s declaration that “we beat those police until they bled,” together with earlier statements by other movement figures and the documented deaths of 44 police officers, has again raised the unresolved question of how serious violence committed by different sides in 2024 will be investigated.
OHCHR has recommended that serious crimes against protesters be investigated alongside killings and violence targeting police officers, Awami League supporters and others, with accountability based on evidence rather than blanket exclusion from prosecution.
