A Dhaka court has sent former speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury to jail after rejecting a police request to place her on remand in an attempted murder case linked to the July uprising.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana passed the order on Tuesday after police had produced Shirin before the court with a two-day remand to question her.
Inspector Mohsin Uddin of the Detective Branch’s Lalbagh Zone submitted the application after her arrest earlier that day at her residence in the Dhanmondi area of the capital, according to the police.
The case was filed by Md Ashraful, who was shot in the eye while participating in a procession in the Azimpur area on 18 July 2024. He later filed the complaint on 25 May 2025.
In the case, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been named as the principal accused, while Shirin is listed as the third accused.
During the hearing, state prosecutor Omar Faruk Faruqui alleged that Shirin had acted as an associate of what he described as a “fascist regime” and had been involved in incidents related to the student movement. He accused her of giving instructions to open fire on protesters in an attempt to keep the government in power.
He told the court that remand was necessary to gather further information and identify those responsible for ordering the shootings.
The defence opposed the remand request and sought bail. Defence lawyer Ibnul Kawser argued that Shirin had voluntarily resigned from her position, unlike others, and described her as a person of “clean image”. He said the complaint contained no specific allegations beyond naming her as the third accused and questioned the delay between the incident and the filing of the case.
Shirin was brought before the court at around 3:15pm and stood in the dock during the hearing, holding onto the railing in front of her. She appeared without a helmet or bulletproof vest.
Her lawyers informed the court that she wished to speak, but she was not granted permission.
After the hearing, as she was being escorted down the stairs, she fell amid pushing and jostling between police officers and lawyers. Lawyers aligned with Awami League chanted slogans, while opposing lawyers later chased them away.
Allegations in the case
According to the complaint filed at Lalbagh Police Station, the plaintiff alleged that on 18 July 2024, armed attackers opened indiscriminate fire on an unarmed and peaceful procession of students in Azimpur. The attack, the complaint says, was carried out on the orders of Sheikh Hasina and with the involvement of other accused.
The complainant said he sustained multiple gunshot injuries, including one behind the retina of his eye, two to the head and forehead, and another to the left side of his face.
He was rescued by locals and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for initial treatment. He later underwent surgery at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and was subsequently transferred to the National Institute of Ophthalmology. He lost vision in his left eye.
In the remand application, the investigating officer stated that sufficient evidence had been found linking the former speaker to the incident. The application also claimed that the accused were involved in major state decision-making and that the incident took place under their direct or indirect instructions.
Police argued that custodial interrogation could help identify absconding suspects and uncover further details of the case. They also expressed concern that she might evade justice or interfere with the investigation if granted bail.
Out of public view since uprising
Shirin has remained largely out of public view since 5 August 2024, following the mass uprising. A list circulated at the time by the Inter-Services Public Relations indicated that she was among those who had taken shelter in military facilities.
After the dissolution of parliament by President Mohammed Shahabuddin, it was announced that Shirin resigned from her position on 2 September.
Under constitutional provisions, newly elected members of parliament are usually sworn in by the speaker of the previous parliament. However, due to her resignation, the responsibility was carried out by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin.
From academic excellence to political leadership
Shirin is Bangladesh’s first female speaker and the first to be elected to the post from a reserved women’s seat. She served three consecutive terms before stepping down.
Although a member of the Awami League’s central committee, she was not widely known in active politics before being nominated to a reserved seat following the 2008 general election.
She was elected speaker on 30 April 2013 while serving as state minister for women and children affairs.
In the 2014 general election, she initially sought nomination from her ancestral constituency in Noakhali but did not receive party endorsement. She later returned to parliament through a reserved seat and subsequently contested and won the Rangpur-6 seat in a by-election after Sheikh Hasina vacated it. She retained the seat in subsequent general elections.
She comes from a politically connected family. Her father, Rafiqullah Chaudhury, was a student leader during the 1960s under Ayub Khan’s martial law and later served as a private secretary to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after independence.
During the 2007–08 military-backed caretaker government, Shirin was a member of Sheikh Hasina’s legal defence team.
Born in Dhaka on 6 October 1966, she was an outstanding student throughout her academic career. She ranked first in the humanities group in the Dhaka Board’s Secondary School Certificate examination in 1983 and second in the Higher Secondary Certificate examination two years later.
She completed both her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law at the University of Dhaka with first-class first distinction and later obtained a PhD from a university in the United Kingdom under a Commonwealth scholarship.
In 1992, she enrolled as a lawyer with the Bangladesh Bar Council.
