Monday, 17 November, 2025
NEWS ANALYSIS
Destiny has a way of repeating itself for those who ignore its first warning. And when its lessons are dismissed, fate does not return in whispers—it crashes back like a storm: louder, harsher, and utterly unforgiving.
The ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is confronting that storm today. The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)—the very institution she built, shaped, and weaponised—is preparing to deliver its verdict against her. The charges form a chilling inventory of state-driven violence: incitement, provocation, superior command responsibility, and joint criminal enterprise—offences prosecutors say fuelled the killing of 1,400 civilians during the July crackdown.
All eyes now turn to the ICT complex in Dhaka, where the nation braces for a moment without precedent: Sheikh Hasina, once the most powerful political figure in Bangladesh, now a fugitive in India, is about to face the unforgiving weight of the judicial machine she engineered. A tribunal forged as a political weapon has become the furnace of her own reckoning—where history returns to settle its long-delayed debt.
Once, she thundered the rhetoric of justice from the political stage. Today, those echoes have turned on her with brutal force. For over a decade, the ICT served as her battleground—an arena she used to silence rivals, recast narratives, and entrench her grip on power. Now, in an irony as dark as it is historic, it stands as the dock where her legacy hangs in the balance.
Prosecutors accuse her of killings, disappearances, torture, and repression during the July Uprising that triggered her downfall. What she once wielded has returned as the instrument of her undoing.
Bangladesh feels like a nation on edge. Security is tightening by the hour. The Supreme Court has requested army deployment to fortify the tribunal. All attention converges on Houses 87 and 93 of Road 11/A, Dhanmondi, where Tribunal-1 is set to deliver the most politically volatile judgement in years—despite the Awami League’s nationwide shutdown aimed at derailing the proceedings.
Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder and his two-member bench will decide Hasina’s fate even as fresh arson attacks and crude bomb blasts strike Dhaka, Savar, Kushtia, and Gazipur—signs of a party resorting to disruption as its last defence.
Today’s verdict is more than a legal decision. It is a test of whether Bangladesh can finally break the cycle of political impunity—or plunge once again into a grim loop of vengeance and repetition. Hasina once turned the tribunal into her battlefield. Now that battlefield awaits her verdict.
Hasina is not alone in the dock. Former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and ex-IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun complete the triangle of power now facing the law. Only Mamun has confessed, turning state witness in a move that has isolated his former superiors and shaken the remnants of the Awami League. Hasina and Asaduzzaman, both fugitives, will be tried in absentia.
The ICT is simultaneously handling 45 cases linked to the uprising—killings, disappearances, torture—while investigators have opened a sweeping probe into the Awami League as a political organisation. Never before has an entire ruling party found itself under such extensive legal scrutiny.
The interim administration insists it is ready for the aftermath. Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has placed all agencies on “full alert,” vowing that elections will proceed despite instability. Border Guard Bangladesh units now guard Dhaka, Gopalganj, Faridpur, and Madaripur.
Hasina faces further legal peril. Three more tribunal cases await her—covering enforced disappearances, torture, and the Shapla Chattar killings. Meanwhile, 30 cases relating to 1971 war crimes remain frozen as the reconstituted tribunal prioritises the July atrocities that tore the nation apart.
A central legal debate has revolved around the applicability of the 1973 International Crimes Tribunal Act to Hasina’s alleged offences. The July Uprising toppled her government, forced her flight to India, and triggered a cascade of cases against her leadership. Law Adviser Asif Nazrul closed the debate on 14 August 2024: the trials would proceed under the ICT Act. “We will not spare anyone,” he declared. “If there is superior command responsibility, it will be examined thoroughly.”
Legal conservatives argue the 1973 Act was intended solely for 1971 crimes. But Section 3(1) is unequivocal: any individual or group responsible for crimes against humanity “before or after the enactment” of the law falls under its jurisdiction. Coupled with subsection 2(a), the tribunal has sweeping authority to prosecute killings, extermination, torture, abduction, persecution, and other inhumane acts—regardless of the era. Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman reinforced this, stating that crimes against humanity fall squarely within the tribunal’s mandate.
The case timeline shows how relentlessly the law has moved. Charges were filed on 15 August 2024. An arrest warrant followed in October. By November, authorities sought an Interpol Red Notice. The investigation report arrived in May 2025; formal charges were accepted in June during a nationally broadcast session. Charges were framed in July, with Mamun approved as a state witness.
Of 81 listed witnesses, 54 testified—among them senior interim officials, families of victims, leaders of the July movement such as Nahid Islam, and journalist Mahmudur Rahman of Amar Desh. The tribunal closed arguments on 23 October and set 17 November for judgement—a date now gripping the nation.
Today’s verdict is more than a legal decision. It is a test of whether Bangladesh can finally break the cycle of political impunity—or plunge once again into a grim loop of vengeance and repetition. Hasina once turned the tribunal into her battlefield. Now that battlefield awaits her verdict.
History has returned to her door. This time, destiny refuses to be ignored.
Comments
NEWS ANALYSIS
Destiny has a way of repeating itself for those who ignore its first warning. And when its lessons are dismissed, fate does not return in whispers—it crashes back like a storm: louder, harsher, and utterly unforgiving.
The ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is confronting that storm today. The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)—the very institution she built, shaped, and weaponised—is preparing to deliver its verdict against her. The charges form a chilling inventory of state-driven violence: incitement, provocation, superior command responsibility, and joint criminal enterprise—offences prosecutors say fuelled the killing of 1,400 civilians during the July crackdown.
All eyes now turn to the ICT complex in Dhaka, where the nation braces for a moment without precedent: Sheikh Hasina, once the most powerful political figure in Bangladesh, now a fugitive in India, is about to face the unforgiving weight of the judicial machine she engineered. A tribunal forged as a political weapon has become the furnace of her own reckoning—where history returns to settle its long-delayed debt.
Once, she thundered the rhetoric of justice from the political stage. Today, those echoes have turned on her with brutal force. For over a decade, the ICT served as her battleground—an arena she used to silence rivals, recast narratives, and entrench her grip on power. Now, in an irony as dark as it is historic, it stands as the dock where her legacy hangs in the balance.
Prosecutors accuse her of killings, disappearances, torture, and repression during the July Uprising that triggered her downfall. What she once wielded has returned as the instrument of her undoing.
Bangladesh feels like a nation on edge. Security is tightening by the hour. The Supreme Court has requested army deployment to fortify the tribunal. All attention converges on Houses 87 and 93 of Road 11/A, Dhanmondi, where Tribunal-1 is set to deliver the most politically volatile judgement in years—despite the Awami League’s nationwide shutdown aimed at derailing the proceedings.
Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder and his two-member bench will decide Hasina’s fate even as fresh arson attacks and crude bomb blasts strike Dhaka, Savar, Kushtia, and Gazipur—signs of a party resorting to disruption as its last defence.
Today’s verdict is more than a legal decision. It is a test of whether Bangladesh can finally break the cycle of political impunity—or plunge once again into a grim loop of vengeance and repetition. Hasina once turned the tribunal into her battlefield. Now that battlefield awaits her verdict.
Hasina is not alone in the dock. Former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and ex-IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun complete the triangle of power now facing the law. Only Mamun has confessed, turning state witness in a move that has isolated his former superiors and shaken the remnants of the Awami League. Hasina and Asaduzzaman, both fugitives, will be tried in absentia.
The ICT is simultaneously handling 45 cases linked to the uprising—killings, disappearances, torture—while investigators have opened a sweeping probe into the Awami League as a political organisation. Never before has an entire ruling party found itself under such extensive legal scrutiny.
The interim administration insists it is ready for the aftermath. Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury has placed all agencies on “full alert,” vowing that elections will proceed despite instability. Border Guard Bangladesh units now guard Dhaka, Gopalganj, Faridpur, and Madaripur.
Hasina faces further legal peril. Three more tribunal cases await her—covering enforced disappearances, torture, and the Shapla Chattar killings. Meanwhile, 30 cases relating to 1971 war crimes remain frozen as the reconstituted tribunal prioritises the July atrocities that tore the nation apart.
A central legal debate has revolved around the applicability of the 1973 International Crimes Tribunal Act to Hasina’s alleged offences. The July Uprising toppled her government, forced her flight to India, and triggered a cascade of cases against her leadership. Law Adviser Asif Nazrul closed the debate on 14 August 2024: the trials would proceed under the ICT Act. “We will not spare anyone,” he declared. “If there is superior command responsibility, it will be examined thoroughly.”
Legal conservatives argue the 1973 Act was intended solely for 1971 crimes. But Section 3(1) is unequivocal: any individual or group responsible for crimes against humanity “before or after the enactment” of the law falls under its jurisdiction. Coupled with subsection 2(a), the tribunal has sweeping authority to prosecute killings, extermination, torture, abduction, persecution, and other inhumane acts—regardless of the era. Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman reinforced this, stating that crimes against humanity fall squarely within the tribunal’s mandate.
The case timeline shows how relentlessly the law has moved. Charges were filed on 15 August 2024. An arrest warrant followed in October. By November, authorities sought an Interpol Red Notice. The investigation report arrived in May 2025; formal charges were accepted in June during a nationally broadcast session. Charges were framed in July, with Mamun approved as a state witness.
Of 81 listed witnesses, 54 testified—among them senior interim officials, families of victims, leaders of the July movement such as Nahid Islam, and journalist Mahmudur Rahman of Amar Desh. The tribunal closed arguments on 23 October and set 17 November for judgement—a date now gripping the nation.
Today’s verdict is more than a legal decision. It is a test of whether Bangladesh can finally break the cycle of political impunity—or plunge once again into a grim loop of vengeance and repetition. Hasina once turned the tribunal into her battlefield. Now that battlefield awaits her verdict.
History has returned to her door. This time, destiny refuses to be ignored.
Comments
