A distressing video from Ashulia Police Station Road shows a pile of bodies on a pedal van. The police are seen counting and loading bullet-ridden bodies onto the van and covering them with a discarded banner. One of the people, who was shot, was still alive—his lifeless body shaking, moving slightly. This one-minute and fourteen-second video spread across social media, causing an uproar. People are asking questions about where, when, and how the incident occurred. However, no one can provide the exact date and location. Some are sharing speculative information. However, Manabzamin has uncovered the true details of the incident and tried to bring out the complete story of where and how this tragic event unfolded.
On-site reports revealed that the horrific incident of piling up bodies on a police van happened in a lane off the Thana Road in the Ashulia Bypail area. Right beside the police station, in the lane next to the Officer Family Quarters of Islam Polymers and Plasticizers Limited, lay the bullet-ridden bodies of seven students. The police later gathered the bodies and piled them onto a van. What followed was even more tragic, an event hard to describe. Several eyewitnesses told Manabzamin that on August 5, right after Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country, a victory rally erupted in the Bypail area. After the rally, in the afternoon, an agitated crowd surrounded Ashulia Police Station, causing panic among the police officers. The officers responsible for security around the station ran inside the building and locked the gate behind them. It was 4:30 PM. Within just five minutes, the protestors had surrounded the station from all sides, throwing stones at the building, with some trying to break down the gate. Seeing the situation worsen, the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Ashulia Police Station, A.F.M. Sayeed Ahmed, instructed the police to ready their weapons and load their guns. Hearing this, the crowd became even more enraged, and tension escalated further.
At that time, 30 to 35 police officers emerged from the station and took positions at the gate. It was 4:40 PM. OC Sayeed Ahmed tried to calm the agitated crowd at the gate. The protestors started chanting slogans against the police, calling them “fake, fake.” At one point, the OC instructed the officers to be ready with their weapons. This spread anger among the people present, and the protesting students demanded that the police surrender. The OC then told the protestors, “We have lost. You have won. Please forgive us and go home.” At one point, SI Malek, DB’s OC Arafat, SI Afzalul, and SI Jalil fired shots at the protestors. Several individuals fell on the street, wounded by gunfire in the alley beside the police station. Amidst the continuous gunfire, people fled the scene in panic.
A witness named Roni Ahmed, who watched the whole incident unfold from a building in front of the police station, told Manabzamin, “In the afternoon, police fired at the agitated crowd in front of the police gate, causing 10 to 12 people to fall to the ground. The firing continued for several minutes. The students crouched low to drag a few of the living away, but 6 to 7 people remained there. The surrounding alleys and roads were blocked off by people. Later, the police emerged fully armed from the station, firing as they advanced. The spot where bodies were piled on the van was at the gate of the Officer Family Quarters of Polymers and Plasticizers Limited. Opposite the gate, Fahima Akter, the owner of Sadia Rajshahi Confectionery and Sweets, told Manabzamin, “The incident happened right in front of my shop. It must have been around 4:30 PM on August 5. The police were loading the bodies lying in front of the police station onto a van after they were shot. We saw them doing this right before our eyes. Initially, the bodies were loaded and covered with a banner and taken in front of the police station. Later, they were set on fire. That scene still haunts me.”
Another eyewitness, Rocky Ahmed, a garment worker, told Manabzamin, “The police first came to the gate and loaded seven bullet-ridden bodies lying in front of the Officer Family Quarters of Islam Polymers and Plasticizers Limited onto a pedal van. They then brought them in front of the police station. Later, the bodies were transferred to a police pickup truck parked at the station and set on fire. After burning the seven bodies, all the police officers emerged from the station and began walking through the alley while continuing to fire shots. One of the burnt bodies still had handcuffs on.”
Pointing out the spot where the bodies were piled, Aslam Hossain told Manabzamin, “Look closely. The poster seen in the video is still intact on the wall. Some sandbags have been removed. On that day, bodies were scattered all over Thana Road. The police used the van to gather all the bodies in one place. The way they gathered the bodies in the alley was like picking mangoes. Later, the bodies were brought in front of the police station and set on fire. No one around here didn’t see this. It was a horrifying incident. Remembering it still sends chills down my spine.”
Among the burnt bodies in front of Ashulia Police Station was Asshabur, a tenth-grade student of Jamgara Shaheen School. His elder brother, Rezwanul Islam, told Manabzamin, “My brother fell on the road near the police station after being shot. The police later picked up his lifeless body from the road, put it in a pickup truck, and set it on fire. We never had the chance to find out if my brother was alive or dead. All seven of the bullet-ridden were burned. The police did not give us the chance to find out who was alive or dead. My brother was wearing a blue T-shirt. We identified his charred body by the T-shirt.”
Another eyewitness, Afzal Hossain, told Manabzamin, “When the police emerged from the station, some of them were carrying two weapons. Many were in civilian clothes. I saw some unfamiliar weapons in their hands. They fired as they came out and never stopped shooting. When they reached the main road, they set fire to a pickup truck. That pickup truck also had 5 to 6 bullet-ridden bodies. The people who were killed in the afternoon by gunfire were kept in that van. They were shooting indiscriminately. They never stopped firing. They fired in alleys, on roads, in houses, wherever they wanted. They were in groups, around 80 to 90 of them.”
An auto-rickshaw driver at the Bypail bus stand told Manabzamin, “The police came to the main road from the station and fired on both sides. They kept shooting on both sides of the road as they moved towards Nabinagar. People ran for their lives in all directions. The police did not stop shooting for a minute. They kept firing as long as they walked. Hundreds of people, including pedestrians, residents, and shopkeepers, were shot that day. The people of Bypail had never seen a day like that.”
Several pedestrians who witnessed the incident that day told Manabzamin that the police fired from Thana Road all the way to Sohel Hospital. Nothing could be heard except the sound of gunfire. Screams of people echoed all around. “Save us, save us.” It felt like a war had broken out. People started fleeing their homes. It was past 9 PM. The police were marching forward, still firing. They continued this way until they reached Palli Bidyut. During this time, we saw hundreds of people shot and lying on the road.
According to the relatives of the deceased and hospital sources, at least 31 people were killed from 9 AM to 12 AM on August 5 due to gunfire from the police, Chhatra League, and Jubo League. The following day, another 15 people succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment in hospitals. This brought the total death toll from the incident to 46. In addition, over fifteen hundred people were injured and are receiving treatment for gunshot wounds at various hospitals and clinics in Dhamrai Upazila Health Complex, Ashulia Women and Children’s Hospital, Ashulia Habib Clinic, Gonoshasthaya Kendra Hospital, Enam Medical College Hospital, and other hospitals in Savar.
