DHAKA, Aug 15 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- A United Nations (UN) fact-finding team will visit Bangladesh next week to investigate the hundreds of deaths during recent student-led protests, which led to the prime minister stepping down, UN officials announced on Thursday.
An independent inquiry commission will be funded and led by the UN, said Gwyn Lewis, the UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh, after a meeting in the capital Dhaka with Touhid Hossain, foreign policy advisor in the country’s transitional government, Anadolu Agency reported.
The time frame and an action plan will be finalised soon, Lewis added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, made a phone call to Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and said a UN-led investigation would be launched very soon to probe the killing of the protesters.
“A team of UN experts will soon visit the country to set up an investigation,” Turk was quoted as saying by Yunus’ press office.
During the call, Yunus sought UN cooperation for rebuilding the country and to helping it uphold human rights.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, last week was tapped to lead a 17-member transitional administration after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to neighboring India under the pressure of weeks of anti-government protests.
From mid-July until Hasina fled, the student-civilian uprising resulted in at least 580 deaths.
-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU
