London/Dhaka: Exactly how many people died in the 2024 Bangladesh protests that led to the ouster of the country’s prime minister Sk Hasina and a ban on her party, Awami League.
Hasina’s legal has written formally to UN High commissioner for human rights Volker Turk, demanding a public retraction of a key finding in a UN fact-finding report on the 2024 Bangladesh protests – specifically its estimate that up to 1,400 people were killed during the unrest.
Written by Steven Powles KC of London’s Doughty Street Chambers, the letter, dated May 28, 2026, challenges the central casualty figure published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in its February 2025 report, “Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh”, as reported by Hindustan Times.
“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, reportedly accessed by NDTV.
As many as 1,400 people were killed in just 46 days, the OHCHR report concluded. The vast majority were shot by security forces, and the UN body found reasonable grounds to believe that officials of the former government, its security and intelligence apparatus, together with violent elements associated with the former ruling party, committed serious and systematic human rights violations.
The report was widely cited internationally and contributed to sustained international pressure on Hasina, who fled Bangladesh in August 2024 and has remained in exile in India since.
Bangladesh’s own Official Gazette – published by the Interim Government on January 15, 2025 – lists the number of casualties closer to 834, roughly half the UN figure, Powles’ letter says.
Even this figure may be inflated, the letter noted, citing the student-led Anti-Discrimination Movement’s own tally of 650 deaths.
“The actual number is likely to be even lower, if there was an investigation based on independent and impartial sources,” the letter stated.
The inflated figure was weaponised politically, the counsel argued.
“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 wrote.
Noting that the inquiry was conducted “at the invitation of the Interim Government” led by Dr Muhammad Yunus, The letter raised broader concerns about its independence.
Powles says the government was “implicated in committing widespread human rights abuses” documented by multiple NGOs, and which is the subject of an Article 15 Communication to the International Criminal Court alleging crimes against humanity.
Yunus himself had acknowledged the movement that ousted Hasina was a “carefully planned, disciplined operation”, it was pointed out by the counsel.
In November 2025, a domestic war crimes court in Bangladesh sentenced Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan to death on charges of crimes against humanity linked to the protest crackdown. Hasina’s legal team has consistently contested those proceedings as politically motivated.
“The OHCHR is respectfully requested to issue a public retraction and correction of this aspect of the report regarding the figure of 1,400 protestors killed. This is necessary to ensure that the UN does not become an instrument for perpetuating a false narrative,” Powles concluded by calling on the OHCHR to act swiftly.
There has been no response from the OHCHR till now.
