Contrary to Joy’s claims, evidence confirms police use of 7.62mm rifles
In recent months, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has made multiple social media posts claiming that Bangladesh police do not use 7.62mm rifles. By asserting this, he suggested that these weapons must have been used by external actors to target students and other protesters opposing his mother’s rule, thereby incriminating her government for the gunning down of protesters. However, evidence shows that Bangladesh police have not only possessed but also actively used 7.62mm rifles—including during the protests that led to Hasina’s ousting on August 5th.
Joy’s false assertions were widely disseminated through the Awami League's official pages on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), receiving over 100,000 reactions and being shared more than 7,000 times. A video posted by Joy on his Facebook page was viewed 1.4 million times, while two of his posts on X reached about 200,000 users. None of these posts carried any reviews by Facebook’s fact-checkers or X’s Community Notes, measures intended to curb the spread of false information.
A Twisted Interview
The narrative began after Sakhawat Hossain, a cabinet member of the interim government, said on August 8th that many injured individuals at a local hospital had gunshot wounds from 7.62mm bullets, possibly fired by individuals unaffiliated with the police. Joy seized upon these remarks, posting to his 3.5 million Facebook followers that this raised questions about who killed the protesters.
His bilingual post featured different messages in Bengali and English. In the Bengali version, he falsely claimed that “the weapon that the police do not even possess was used to attack” members of a paramilitary auxiliary force. This claim was made despite Hossain stating in the same interview that “police can have that weapon; they are a uniformed force.”
In the accompanying English text, Joy omitted the claim about the police’s possession of the weapon. Instead, he wrote: “7.62mm [is] prohibited in Bangladesh. Who supplied these weapons? Who were these murderers?” The post went viral, amplified by hundreds of Facebook accounts and pages. A notable Awami League-affiliated page, A-Team, shared its own version, garnering 1,800 reactions and hundreds of shares. The accompanying video was viewed more than 84,000 times.
Reiterating Falsehoods
Months later, Joy repeated his claim.
Citing the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), he said: “They have video of civilians with AK-47s shooting at protesters.” The AK-47 is a type of 7.62mm rifle. He added, “These are not used by our police and [are] prohibited in #Bangladesh.”
Within 24 hours, on October 3rd, the Awami League issued a statement on Facebook pushing a similar narrative: “You have seen how evil local political forces and foreign agents hijacked the students’ movement from July 16 and started killing and arson. The situation was even heated by firing on the students using 7.62[mm] rifles.”
In a recent interview with Time magazine, Joy doubled down on his claim, suggesting that “at least half” of the estimated 1,500 deaths resulting from the government’s handling of the protests were caused by “terrorists” likely armed by an unspecified “foreign intelligence agency.”
The implication is that a foreign intelligence agency supplied 7.62mm rifles to unknown actors to kill protesters and frame the government in the killings. Since the police do not use 7.62mm rifles, Joy argued, these weapons must have been provided by external sources.
Evidence Contradicting Joy’s Claims
However, contrary to Joy’s conspiracy theory, extensive documentation indicates that Bangladesh police and security forces have used lethal force against students and protesters. Officials at the time publicly ordered police and security forces to implement a “shoot at sight” policy. The Hasina government, when in power, openly boasted about using force against protesters and justified it against alleged “extremists.”
Bangladeshi media have also documented numerous incidents of ruling Awami League activists wielding heavy weaponry against protesters. On August 4th, a day before Hasina was ousted, The Business Standard reported that a prominent Awami League leader allegedly led his subordinates in firing firearms at students.
On the same day, footage broadcast by Independent Television, a local TV station, showed Awami League activists in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi neighbourhood wielding a weapon resembling an AK 47, which uses 7.62mm bullets, according to Dr Khan Sobayel Bin Rafiq, a former Army officer and a qualified small arms inspector.
In Feni, videos emerged showing assailants associated with a notorious Awami League figure using firearms. According to Dr Sobayel, they appear to be M15, a military-grade rifle, most likely a 2-STG Semi-Automatic one.
Procurement of 7.62mm Rifles by Bangladesh Police
Documents obtained by Netra News also reveal that Bangladesh Police have actively sought to procure 7.62mm rifles and ammunition during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure:
- March 2023: The police headquarters initiated the procurement of thirty 7.62mm sniper rifles ahead of the election, as reported by New Age. The purchase aimed to quell protests organised by opposition parties at the time.
- March 2024: Barely months before the latest round of protests began against Hasina, Bangladesh Police initiated another tender for more 7.62mm sniper rifles. An 'Invitation for International Tender' issued on 24th March 2024 invited manufacturers and suppliers to submit bids for 50 pieces of 7.62mm sniper rifles.
- September 2019: An earlier tender confirms police had access to a significant cache of 7.62mm rifles. On 18th September 2019, an invitation for tender was posted to procure 15,000 pieces of “7.62mm Semi-Automatic Rifles.” The Type 56 semi-automatic rifles used by police and other security agencies are among the variants of 7.62mm semi-automatic rifles.
Weapons experts and officials within Bangladesh Police have confirmed that officers and RAB officials often use 7.62×39mm bullets with Chinese-made Type 56 semi-automatic rifles.
Police Tender Doc 7.62mm by Netra News Documents
Visual Evidence of Police Using 7.62mm Rifles
Photographic and video evidence further supports the presence and use of 7.62mm rifles by security forces during the protests:
- The Daily Star newspaper published around a dozen photographs captured during the protests, showing members of the Police, Armed Police Battalion (APBn), Ansar, and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) using Type 56 rifles against protesters.
- An Associated Press photograph from 19th July 2024 shows a police officer aiming a Type 56 assault rifle at protesters in front of the Baitul Mukarram Market area in Dhaka.
- Another Associated Press image from August 5th depicts an APBn officer pointing a Chinese Type 56 semi-automatic rifle.
- On July 25th, Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab, after verifying multiple videos, confirmed in a statement that Chinese Type 56-1 assault rifles were used by security forces to shoot protesters.
- A video report by RTV, a satellite TV channel in Bangladesh, showed footage of policemen using Type 56 semi-automatic rifles firing 7.62×39mm bullets at protesters.
A police official who served in the Uttara neighbourhood in Dhaka told Netra News: “In Uttara, I have personally observed multiple incidents where such Chinese rifles were used on protesters at random.” He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the details.
Major Shafayat Ahmad (Retired), a former infantry heavy weapons instructor in the Bangladesh Army, has reviewed the photographs shared by Netra News and identified the weapons accordingly. He said, “The one in which the police is firing through a fence is a 7.62mm Semi-Automatic Rifle Type 56, more commonly called the 'China Rifle'.”
“And the one in the Baitul Mukarram area is a 7.62 mm Sub-Machine Gun (SMG) Type 56; it’s an automatic one, which means, if you keep the trigger pressed, you can empty the magazine with one press,” added. “These are called Type 56 because that's the year China started manufacturing them after obtaining the technology and license from the then USSR.”
The evidence overwhelmingly contradicts Sajeeb Wazed Joy’s claims that Bangladesh police do not use 7.62mm rifles and that external actors were responsible for the deaths during the protests. Official documents, expert testimonies, media reports, and visual evidence confirm that Bangladesh police and other security agencies possessed and utilised 7.62mm rifles against protesters.●