[7][8][9][10] Following the events at Motijheel, protests in other parts of the country also broke out, during which 27 people died,[11][12][13] although different sources report casualty numbers ranging from 20 to 61.
[19][20] In early 2013, Hefajat-e Islam emerged as a pressure group composed of madrassah teachers and students,[21] led by Shah Ahmad Shafi, rector of Hathazari Madrasah.
[10] On 3 May 2013, Human Rights Watch issued warnings, based on information obtained from diplomatic missions regarding an imminent government crackdown, to security forces against committing excesses in the planned upcoming protests.
[2][28] At about 3:00 pm, while Hefazat leaders were delivering speeches, the Secretary General of the Awami League, Sayed Ashraful Islam, demanded, via press conference, that they leave Dhaka.
[29][30] Hefazat claimed that their workers were unarmed and had come under attack by police and Bangladesh Chhatra League activists at Gulistan, Purana Paltan and Baitul Mukarram, and in front of the Communist Party offices.
[31] They violently attacked others in front of the Awami League headquarter at Paltan, Dhaka, and allegedly set fire to a number of book stores near the Baitul Mukarram mosque.
Then, moving in from three directions via Dainik Bangla, Fakirapool and Bangladesh Bank intersection, security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets, and sound grenades to disperse the demonstrators.
[11] According to government estimates, the number of casualties in this operation was 11, including a few law enforcement members,[17] while the Daily Star reported 5 deaths.
[34][35] The Guardian reported 22 confirmed deaths,[15] while an investigation conducted by Aljazeera revealed that 14 bodies of "bearded men" with gunshot wounds were buried, after the protests, at Dhaka's state-run cemetery.
[36] Human rights group Odhikar reported 61 deaths, but refused to reveal the names of the victims out of security concerns for their families.
[20] Diganta Television's chief reporter M. Kamruzzaman said that around 25 plain-clothed policemen and an official from the broadcast commission had entered their studios without warning.
"[1] Bangladeshi foreign minister Dipu Moni downplayed reports of inaccuracy in government figures and added that "most of the people in the country doesn't even think that there was any controversy with the matter.
"[1] In response, Detective Branch police raided the houses of city BNP convener Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman Andaleeve Rahman Partha.
[1] While some Hefzat activists vowed "revenge" after the killings,[19] Hefazat amir Shah Ahmad Shafi appealed for calm[46] and called a general strike all over Bangladesh on 12 May 2013.
"[48] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced concern over the killing of unarmed protesters in Bangladesh and requested the government to sit with religious and political leaders.
], Martin F. McMahon & Associates, a US law firm representing two US-based organisations, Human Rights and Development for Bangladesh and Bangladeshi-Americans in Greater Washington DC[50] filed cases in the International Criminal Court against 25 Bangladeshi ministers and security officials, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for alleged "torture, forced disappearance, extrajudicial executions and mass killings",[51] Ahmed Ziauddin, a Brussels based Bangladeshi lawyer who was accused of influencing the proceedings of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal at the instruction of Bangladesh government,[52] stated- "I am not sure about the objective of it and I am sure those Washington-based organisations have some political motives.