Operation Clean Heart was an anti crime operation carried out by

Bangladesh Army The Bangladesh Army is the land warfare branch and the largest component of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to provide necessary forces and capabilities to deliver the Bangladeshi government's security and def ...

Bangladesh Navy The Bangladesh Navy ( bn, বাংলাদেশ নৌবাহিনী, Bangladesh Nou Bahini) is the naval warfare branch of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, responsible for Bangladesh's of maritime territorial area, and the defence of imp ...

Bangladesh Rifles Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) are a paramilitary force responsible for the border security of Bangladesh. The force is known as "The Vigilant Sentinels of the National Frontier". The BGB is entrusted with the responsibility to defend the borde ...

Bangladesh Police The Bangladesh Police ( bn, বাংলাদেশ পুলিশ) of the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a law enforcement agency, operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It plays a crucial role in maintaining peace, and enforcement ...

and

Bangladesh Ansar The Bangladesh Ansar (also known as the Ansar Bahini) is a paramilitary auxiliary force responsible for the preservation of internal security and law enforcement in Bangladesh. It is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government ...

members in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. The operation was carried by the government of

headed by the

Bangladesh Nationalist Party The Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( bn, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয়তাবাদী দল, Bangladesh Jātīyotābādī Dol; BNP) is a centre-right to right-wing nationalist, political party in Bangladesh and one of the major ...

Operation

The operation took place from 16 October 2002 to 9 January 2003 led by Bangladesh Army.

Brad Adams Brad Adams is the executive director of the Asian division of Human Rights Watch and has been in the position since 2002. Adams has had a few tasks at Human rights Watch, such as refugees, religious discrimination, freedom of speech and armed confli ...

of Human Rights Watch criticised the shoot at sight order given by the

Dhaka Metropolitan Police The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is the unit of Bangladesh Police responsible for law enforcement in the metropolis of Dhaka, the national capital and most populous city in Bangladesh. The DMP is the largest police force unit in Bangladesh. A ...

Commissioner

Ashraful Huda Ashraful Huda is a former Bangladesh police officer who served as the Inspector General of Police (Bangladesh), Inspector General of Police of Bangladesh Police during 2004–2005. Career Huda served as the principal of Bangladesh Police Academy ...

to the police during the operation phrase. More than 40, 000 security personnel participated in the operation. The security forces included 24,023 army personnel and 339 navy personnel along with personnel from Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Ansar, and Bangladesh Rifles. The joint forces arrested 11,245 suspects during the course of the operation. It had seized 2,028 firearms and nearly 30,000 bullets. Hundreds were injured and 44 died in custody.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

had claimed 60 people were killed in the operation. The Government of Bangladesh claimed 12 of those deaths in custody were from heart attacks. Awami League leader

Saber Hossain Chowdhury Saber Hossain Chowdhury (born 10 September 1961) is a politician from Bangladesh and the incumbent member of Parliament in Bangladesh from the Dhaka-9 constituency. He was the president of Inter-Parliamentary Union from 2014 to 2017. He is the f ...

and

Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim (born 2 February 1949; better known as Sheikh Selim) is a Bangladeshi politician who is a Jatiya Sangsad member representing the Gopalganj-2 constituency since 1991. He is a member of the standing committee of Banglades ...

, cousin of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, were detained during the operation. The Army also raided the Awami League office and seized documents. On 9 January 2003 Bangladesh government created an indemnity law that provided legal protection to security personnel who participated in the operation. It was approved in the parliament of Bangladesh on 24 February 2003. Sultana Kamal, activist, criticized the indemnity ordinance. Justice

Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik is a retired judge of the Appellate Division of Bangladesh Supreme Court who gained notoriety for a number of controversial cases. He was also criticized for submitting verdicts in cases after retirement. Because of ...

criticized the drive and indemnity ordinance. After the operation ended,

Rapid Action Battalion Rapid Action Battalion or RAB, is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police. This elite force consists of members of the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Border Guard Bangladesh, Ba ...

was created in 2004 with personnel from

Bangladesh Air Force The Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) ( bn, বাংলাদেশ বিমান বাহিনী, Bangladesh Biman Bahini) is the aerial warfare branch of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The Air Force is primarily responsible for air defence of B ...

, and

. Z I Khan Panna, a lawyer of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, had filed a petition against the indemnity ordinance on 14 June 2012. He was represented by

Shahdeen Malik Shahdeen Malik is a Bangladeshi lawyer, eminent jurist, a constitutional expert, and legal activist. Early life Malik's father, Abdul Malik Chowdhury, was the chief conservatory officer of the Forest Department. He did his masters in law at the ...

. On 29 July 2012, justices

Mirza Hussain Haider Mirza Hussain Haider is a former Justice of the Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. Early life Haider was born on 1 March 1954 in Bakshiganj, Jamalpur District, East Bengal, Pakistan. He completed his bachelor's degree and maste ...

and

Kazi Md. Ejarul Haque Akondo Kazi Md. Ejarul Haque Akondo (born 24 May 1971) is a Bangladeshi justice of the High Court Division. He was appointed in 2012. Early life Akondo was born on 24 May 1971. He completed his bachelors and masters from the University of Dhaka. Ca ...

asked the government of Bangladesh to explain why it should not declare the ordinance illegal and order it pay 1 billion taka compensation to the victims. In November 2015, the Bangladesh High Court declared the indemnity ordinance illegal and scrapped it. The verdict was given by Justice

Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury is a retired judge of the Bangladesh High Court. Early life Chowdhury was born on 9 January 1953 in Sylhet, East Pakistan. completed his law degree, bachelors, and masters in art from the University of Dhaka. Career On ...

and Justice Ashraful Kamal of the High Court Division. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina referred to Operation Clean Heart when defending her administrations record on human rights on 16 August 2020 following criticism by Bangladesh Nationalist Party which was in power when the operation was launched.

Deaths in the operation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Operation Clean Heart Military history of Bangladesh History of Bangladesh (1971–present) Events in Dhaka 2000s in Dhaka