Sheikh Hasina Ordered Use of Lethal Weapons, BBC Investigation Reveals

A BBC investigation has revealed that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina personally ordered security forces to use lethal weapons during last year’s student-led protests in Bangladesh. The British broadcaster verified an audio recording of a phone conversation in which she issued these instructions.

The investigation was conducted by BBC Eye, the investigative unit of the BBC, in collaboration with BBC Bangla, according to a published report. In the verified audio, Sheikh Hasina is heard instructing security forces to use lethal weapons against protesters, saying, “Wherever they (protesters) are found, shoot them.” The audio, which surfaced online in March this year, captures a conversation between Sheikh Hasina and an unidentified senior government official. It is the strongest evidence to date indicating that Sheikh Hasina directly ordered the use of firearms against anti-government protesters. A source familiar with the audio informed the BBC that the conversation took place on July 18 last year when Sheikh Hasina was at her official residence, Gonobhaban, in Dhaka, during a period of intense protests. According to police records accessed by the BBC, the use of lethal weapons by the army began in Dhaka in the days following this conversation. The recording is one of many phone conversations of Sheikh Hasina recorded by the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), Bangladesh’s telecommunications monitoring agency. However, it remains unclear who leaked the recording. The leaked recording from July 18 was verified by Bangladesh Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which matched it to Sheikh Hasina’s voice. The BBC also independently verified the audio, sending it to Earshot, an audio forensic expert organization. Earshot confirmed that there was no evidence of editing or tampering, and the likelihood of the audio being artificially generated was extremely low. Earshot further identified the presence of Electric Network Frequency (ENF) in the recording, which indicates it was not altered. They also analyzed Sheikh Hasina’s speech patterns, tone, breathing sounds, and consistent background noise, finding no evidence of artificial manipulation.