Bangladesh medics arrested over death during 2024 revolution

DHAKA: Five Bangladeshi health workers have been arrested on murder charges after a social media post accused them of failing to provide aid to a man who died during last year´s revolution, a prosecutor said on Sunday.

The case, which has generated widespread attention after the Facebook post resulted in criticism online of the medics, concerns the death of a rickshaw puller, Mohammed Ismail.

Hospital workers say the five are innocent and that they risked their lives repeatedly to help wounded protesters.

More than 800 people died in the student-led demonstrations that culminated in the ouster of Sheikh Hasina´s government on August 5, according to the interim authorities who subsequently took power.

Ismail was shot in the head on July 19, 2024 during a police crackdown in the Rampura suburb of the capital Dhaka, local media reported at the time.

A Facebook post showed his bloodied body on the entrance steps of the Delta Health Care Hospital.

“We saw a post on social media,” chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam, from Bangladesh´s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told AFP.

The five -- doctor Sadi Bin Shams and four others including nurses -- were arrested late on Friday.

“These individuals allegedly denied Ismail access to treatment, leaving him unattended for four hours,” Islam said.