Dhaka, Sept 23, 2025 : The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has confirmed that a leaked audio recording, which ordered police to use lethal force against protesters during the 2024 mass uprising, matches the voice of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
On Monday, CID’s Digital Forensic Lab officer and police inspector Rukunuzzaman told the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) that their forensic test proved Hasina’s voice in the clip. The male voice in the same recording was identified as Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, then mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation.
In the recording, Hasina ordered open fire and use of lethal weapons on protesters. The tribunal also played the audio in court, and prosecutors said it will be key evidence in the case.
The call is one of many leaked since March 2024, recorded by the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) and spread on social media. Parts of the same recording were previously reported by the BBC in August. Earlier, Al Jazeera verified another leaked call where Hasina was heard telling Taposh to take harsh measures, including the possible use of helicopters to break up protests.
The three-member ICT-1, led by Chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, also heard testimony from the 49th witness, Sabrina Afroz Sebanti, in the crimes against humanity case against Hasina, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.
On the same day, the tribunal completed the cross-examination of the 48th witness, Ali Ahsan Zonaed, who was a key organiser of the uprising and founding convener of United People’s Bangladesh (UP Bangladesh). State lawyer Amir Hossain conducted the cross-examination.
Testifying as the 49th witness, Sabrina said her brother, Mahamudur Rahman Saikat, a student protester, was shot dead by police at Mohammadpur on 19 July 2024. She told the court that her father learned about Saikat’s death when an unknown person answered his phone and said police had killed him at close range and taken the body to Suhrawardy Hospital.
Sabrina, a 4th-year English student at Bangladesh University, said she saw her brother’s bullet wound on his head and witnessed four other dead protesters with bullet marks on their bodies. She added that more injured protesters kept arriving at the hospital with gunshot wounds.
