Overview
- Senior Awami League figures Hasan Mahmud and Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury said the Yunus-led interim administration has barred their party from the February 12 parliamentary polls and cannot ensure a fair contest.
- They announced a plan to compile an alternative record of killings and attacks since August 2024 for submission to the UN human rights office, the European Union and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
- The leaders denounced last year’s UN Human Rights Office report estimating about 1,400 protest-related deaths as biased, saying their perspectives were excluded despite interviews.
- They alleged large-scale targeting of security forces and minorities, citing claims of thousands of police killed and cases such as the lynching and burning of Hindu man Dipu Chandra Das, assertions not independently verified in the reports cited.
- Mahmud vowed the party would return to Bangladesh with Sheikh Hasina, while noting the interim government has accused Awami League leaders of fomenting violence; no fresh response from the interim authorities to Saturday’s claims was reported.