Bangladesh court orders probe in murder case against ex-PM Sheikh Hasina

A court in Bangladesh has opened a murder investigation into former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and six top figures in her administration over the police killing of a man during civil unrest last month.
The chief metropolitan magistrate’s court in the capital, Dhaka, accepted the case on Tuesday after private citizen Amir Hamza filed a legal suit over the killing of grocer Abu Saeed, said Hamza’s lawyer Anwarul Islam.
Saeed was shot on July 19 as police fired on protesting students and other people demonstrating against quotas in government jobs in the Mohammadpur area of Dhaka.
Hamza said he was not related to Saeed but voluntarily approached the court because the family did not have the finances to file the case.
He blamed Hasina, who had called for strong action to quell the violence, for the police firing.
More than 450 people were killed during weeks of civil unrest that forced Hasina to step down.
She has since fled to India.

Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury reports from the capital, Dhaka.