British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which earned reputation as an independent news broadcast organization has come up with a damning report, which exploded like a bombshell after a high profile forensic investigation of a leaked audio clip of Sheikh Hasina, presumably ordering top police officer of her top secret killing squad operatives to use military-grade weapons to neutralize the student protests raging in the streets of capital Dhaka.

Leaked audio shows Hasina ordering police to use military-grade weapons to suppress protests.

As one junior police officer at a street protest in the city was heard on television footage briefing a top police officer visiting the red zone that “I shot one, one falls, but others broke through the police barricade and police are failing to hold the fort.”

A year ago, in July-August, the Monsoon Revolution, spearheaded by millions of university and college students, joined by a million others, brought down the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. She ruled the country with an iron hand for more than 15 years and deliberately erased democracy, human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and freedom of assembly.

Most importantly, during her tenure, the state institutions collapsed and politicized the election commission, judiciary, bureaucracy, police administration, education, and several other institutions were weaponized. She converted the country into a one-party state, sans opposition. The opposition was brutally suppressed, keeping tens of thousands in prisons for long periods on charges of terrorism, vandalism of government properties, and obstruction of police duties. Hasina adopted the harshest measures to stifle critics, dissidents, opposition, and muzzled the press with repressive digital security laws, in a bid to protect the autocratic regime.

BBC Eye, after scientific verification of the leaked audio, justified that the ousted Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, authorized the deadly crackdown on student-led protests in Bangladesh. In the audio, which was leaked online in March, Hasina says she authorized her law enforcement agencies to “use lethal weapons” against protesters and that “wherever they find [them], they will shoot”. Prosecutors in Bangladesh plan to use the recording as crucial evidence against Hasina, who is being tried in absentia at a special tribunal for crimes against humanity.

BBC forensic experts confirmed the recording’s authenticity and unedited nature.

Hasina is in exile somewhere in Delhi, the capital of India, and guarded by Indian commandos and kept in a safe house under several security layers. None of her relatives, and even the senior Awami League leaders who took refuge in India, were allowed to meet her physically for nearly a year.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its fact-finding report last February claimed that at least 1,400 people died in the monsoon uprising. However, her party leaders rejected all charges against her of any wrongdoing. On the leaked tape, an unknown spokesperson for her Awami League party denied that the audio showed any “unlawful intention” of “disproportionate response”, reported the BBC.

OHCHR Fact-Finding Report: Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh also mentioned that the investigators have in their possession audio of Hasina speaking to some trusted police officers, which the UN probe officials did not disclose. But said the audio was handed to the investigators by responsible police officers who are also under investigation by authorities for crimes against humanity.

The Awami League party, now in its worst dark era since the partition in 1947, has rejected the findings of United Nations investigators, who said they had found reasonable grounds to believe the actions of Hasina and her government could amount to crimes against humanity.

The BBC conducted its independent verification by sharing the recording with audio forensics experts Earshot, who found no evidence the speech had been edited or manipulated and said it was highly unlikely to have been synthetically generated.

UN reports link crackdown to over 1,400 deaths during the 2024 Monsoon Revolution.

The leaked audio of Hasina’s conversation with an unidentified senior government official is the most significant evidence that she gave direct authorization to the killing squad to shoot anti-government protesters with military grade weapons. The sensitive audio content could locate the place of the phone call. Hasina was at her official residence, Ganabhaban, in Dhaka. The call had taken place on 18 July, a source told the BBC.

Earshot said the leaked recording was likely to have been taken in a room with the phone call played back on a speaker, due to the presence of distinctive telephonic frequencies and background sounds. Earshot identified Electric Network Frequency (ENF) throughout the recording, a frequency that’s often present in audio recordings due to interference between a recording device and mains-powered equipment, an indicator that the audio has not been manipulated.

Earshot also analyzed Sheikh Hasina’s speech – the rhythm, intonation and breath sounds – and identified consistent noise floor levels, finding no evidence of synthetic artefacts in the audio. The recording the BBC examined is one of numerous calls involving Sheikh Hasina that were made by the National Telecommunications Monitoring Center (NTMC), a Bangladeshi government telecom body responsible for monitoring communications.

It has been confirmed that the leaked 18 July recording was also matched by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Bangladesh Police, with known audio of Sheikh Hasina’s voice in the audio archive. The Chief Prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal, Muhammad Tazul Islam, said the leaked audio will be the strongest evidence to prosecute Hasina for crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, after the BBC Eye disclosed the credible leaked audio of Hasina and an unknown police officer, Delhi conspicuously remained quiet.

From his cozy Delhi office in South Block, Randhir Jaiswal, the Official Spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs did not hesitate to be vocal on quoting fake news and misinformation on crimes committed against Hindus in Bangladesh and the Interim Government of Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus must ensure their minorities safety, security and full investigation against racial crimes committed since the collapse of Hasina’s regime.

Not a word on the leaked audio or the Bangladesh official request for the extradition of Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh and India signed an extradition treaty in 2013 and amended it in 2016 to streamline the process of exchanging fugitives. Visible silence of Delhi’s South Block reflects the anti-Bangladesh rhetoric harped by reputed and largest Indian media Moghals without any respite, which the Hindu supremacists orchestrated within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

India remains silent on Bangladesh’s extradition request, amid political and diplomatic complexities.

Indian authorities did not like that Hasina was ousted in a 36-day street violence, which was a deep-rooted conspiracy, and forced her to go into exile in India. Mohiuddin Ahmad, a political historian and researcher, seeks to understand the role of the know-it-all million-dollar worth security agencies’ covert intelligence gathering. He especially meant the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Indian diplomats in Dhaka, and their local agents deployed there were doing what in Bangladesh since the fraudulent election was held in January 2024? Why were they sucking thumbs?

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.