According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spec, armor-piercing ammunition of the 7.62mm caliber has been used against unarmed civilians in Bangladesh.

“This is a type of ammunition designed for use in combat situations against persons wearing body armor and not for law enforcement applications,” they said in a recent Factfinding Report titled “Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh.”  

The report said, “It would normally be available only to the Army or paramilitary forces such as BGB and RAB. This ammunition is not available for civilian purchase in Bangladesh.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released this report from Geneva on February 12.

The report estimates that as many as 1,400 people were killed between July 1 and August 15, and thousands were injured, the vast majority of whom were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces.

Of these, the report indicates that as many as 12-13 percent of those killed were children.

In one of several deadly cases documented, a 12-year-old protester in Dhanmondi died from internal bleeding caused by some 200 metal shot pellets.

In one case in Narayanganj, a six-year-old girl was killed by a bullet to the head while standing on the roof of her building, observing violent clashes at a protest.

On August 5 – the final and one of the deadliest days of the protests – a 12-year-old boy shot by the police in Azampur recalled that police were “firing everywhere like rainfall.”

He described seeing at least a dozen dead bodies.

“UNICEF reported on many of these deaths and has continued to work on clarifying how many children were killed or hurt – we mourn every one of them,” Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh, said in response to the OHCHR Factfinding Report.

“Let this be a moment of catalytic change. It is a time for all political actors, parties, and policymakers to reach a consensus on the need for reforms to policing and justice systems so that no child in Bangladesh ever again faces arbitrary detention, a lack of due process, torture, or violence for exercising their right to peaceful assembly, and so that children in Bangladesh can fully realize their right to safety, dignity, and justice,” he added.

Forensic medical information provided by the Dhaka Medical College Forensic Medicine Department, based on its forensic examination of 130 deaths, indicates that more than three-quarters (78 percent) of all deaths (which would equate to well over a thousand of OHCHR’s estimate of 1,400 overall deaths) were caused by firearms typically wielded by state security forces and not readily available to civilians in Bangladesh.

This data indicates that about two-thirds (66 percent) of deaths were caused by bullets fired from high-powered military automatic and semi-automatic rifles that are the standard issue of BGB, RAB, Army, Ansar/VDP Battalions, and Armed Police Battalions and which were also used by regular 10 police during the protests.

Another 12 percent of deaths by shotguns loaded with cartridges containing lethal metal pellets (conforming to industry standard’ No. 8 metal shot’), another weapon widely used by Bangladesh Police and also Ansar/VDP.

Furthermore, these figures tally with other information gathered and analyzed by the OHCHR forensic physician and the OHCHR weapons expert, showing that victims with bullet wounds were typically struck by projectiles conforming to the standard military issue 7.62x39mm lethal ammunition for rifles that the Bangladesh Ordnance Factory manufactures.

OHCHR said they have reasonable grounds to believe that these violations with the knowledge, coordination, and direction of the political leadership and senior security sector officials in pursuance of a strategy to suppress the protests and related expressions of dissent.

“These serious human rights violations also raise concerns from the perspective of international criminal law, so that additional criminal investigations are warranted to determine the extent to which they may also amount to crimes against humanity and torture (as a stand-alone international crime), as well as serious crimes under domestic law,” OHCHR said.

Drawing on testimony of senior officials and other evidence, it also found an official policy to attack and violently repress anti-government protesters and sympathizers, raising concerns as to crimes against humanity requiring urgent further criminal investigation.

At the request of the Chief Advisor of the Interim Government, Mohammed Yunus, the UN Human Rights Office dispatched a team to Bangladesh in September, including human rights investigators, a forensics physician, and a weapons expert, to conduct an independent and impartial fact-finding into the deadly events.

“The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former Government to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk.

“The testimonies and evidence we gathered paint a disturbing picture of rampant State violence and targeted killings, which are amongst the most serious violations of human rights and which may also constitute international crimes. Accountability and justice are essential for national healing and for the future of Bangladesh,” he added.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the interim government in Bangladesh should ensure that security forces act with neutrality and respect the rule of law to prosecute political violence.

“Bangladesh is politically polarized after decades of repression by the Awami League government, but the authorities should not repeat and should instead ensure impartial rule of law,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at HRW.

They said the Yunus government is essential to ensuring order. It should consider bringing a consensus resolution at the upcoming March UN Human Rights Council session to request technical assistance, further investigations, and monitoring and reporting by UN-backed human rights experts.

“The resolution should also acknowledge the tyranny of the previous administration and recognize positive human rights steps taken by the interim government,” HRW added.

“I, along with everyone else working in the interim government and millions of other Bangladeshis, am committed to transforming Bangladesh into a country in which all its people can live in security and dignity,” Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus said in a statement following the publication of OHCHR report.

“As the report notes, the long years of the Hasina regime have left Bangladesh with ‘structural deficiencies’ in the law enforcement and justice sectors.”

“The reform of these institutions is crucial to Bangladesh’s transformation into a society where all its people can live in security and dignity,” Prof Yunus said, according to a statement issued by the Chief Adviser Press Wing.