UN report: Bangladesh unrest kills more than 600 people

More than 600 people were killed during weeks-long violence in Bangladesh, the UN Human Rights Office said in a preliminary report.

About 400 deaths were reported from July 16 to August 4, while around 250 people were said to have been killed during the new wave of protests between August 5 and August 6, the UN said, citing media reports and the protest movement. It did not specify the number of people killed in revenge attacks after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on August 5 and fled to neighbouring India.

“There are serious and credible allegations that the security forces responded overall to both protests and subsequent violence with unnecessary and disproportionate force,” according to the UN. “The police and paramilitary forces appear to have frequently used force indiscriminately” against the peaceful protesters and those with elements of violence, it said.

Mainul Hassan, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, did not respond to calls outside regular business hours.

A team will visit Dhaka next week to discuss the modalities for an investigation into human rights violations, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said in the report.

An interim government led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus has taken charge since Hasina left.