The legal team of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wrote a formal letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, demanding a public retraction of a finding in a report on the 2024 Bangladesh protests, which estimated a death toll of 1,400.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published the report titled “Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh” in February 2025. Steven Powles KC of London’s Doughty Street Chambers contested the casualty figures in the report on behalf of Hasina through the letter, dated May 28, 2026.
“It has come to light- even based on the official records of the Interim Government that spread false and inflammatory information to justify the violent overthrow of Prime Minister Hasina’s Government- that the Fact-Finding Report’s conclusion that 1,400 protestors were killed during this period was highly inaccurate,” Powles wrote in the letter, which was accessed by NDTV.
According to the OHCHR report, around 1,400 people were killed in 46 days, with a majority being shot by security forces. The report found reasonable grounds to believe that the former government and its affiliated officials committed serious and systematic human rights violations.
Hasina remains in exile in india after fleeing Bangladesh in August 2024.
The legal counsel cited Bangladesh’s Official Gazette, which was published by the Interim Government on January 15, 2025, that listed the number of casualties to only around 834. Powles also noted that even the Gazette’s figures may be exaggerated due to the student-led Anti-Discrimination Movement’s tally of 650 deaths.
“The actual number is likely to be even lower, if there was an investgation based on independent and impartial sources,” read the letter.
It further added, “The much higher figure was used to exaggerate the nature and extent of the violence, and to portray Prime Minister Hasina as having ordered the mass-murder of peaceful protestors; an accusation that was central to the campaign to overthrow her Government.’
Powles questioned the independence of the OHCHR investigations, highlighting it was conducted “at the invitation of the Interim Government” led by Dr Muhammad Yunus. He accused the Yunus administration of being “implicated in committing widespread human right abuses” documented by multiple NGOs, and which is the subject of an Article 15 Communication to the International Criminal Court alleging crimes against humanity.
The OHCHR has not yet responded to the contents of the letter.
