Former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, “issued an open order” to “use lethal weapons” on students protesting against her government’s policies last year and shoot “wherever they find them”, her secret phone call recordings, accessed by Al Jazeera, have revealed.

Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh for 15 years, resigned from office and fled to India on August 5 after weeks of bloody protests and brutal action by government forces killed nearly 1,400 people and wounded more than 20,000, according to the country’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT).

The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit (I-Unit) had the recordings analysed by audio forensic experts to check for AI manipulation, and the callers were identified by voice matching.

In one call, recorded on July 18 by the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC), Hasina told an ally that she had ordered her security forces to use lethal force.

“My instructions have already been given. I’ve issued an open order completely. Now they will use lethal weapons, shoot wherever they find them,” she said.. “That has been instructed. I have stopped them so far … I was thinking about the students’ safety.”

Later in the call with Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, the mayor of Dhaka South and a relative of Hasina, the former PM talks about using helicopters to control demonstrations.

“Wherever they notice any gathering, it’s from above – now it’s being done from above – it has already started in several places. It has begun. Some [protesters] have moved.”

At the time, Bangladeshi security forces had denied firing on protesters from the air, but Shabir Sharif, an accident and emergency doctor at the Popular Medical College Hospital in Dhaka, told the I-Unit that shots were fired from a helicopter “targeting our hospital entrance”.

He added that doctors attended to student protesters with unusual bullet wounds.

“The bullets entered either the shoulder or the chest, and they all remained inside the body. We were receiving more of these types of patients at that time,” he said. “When we looked at the X-rays, we were surprised because there were huge bullets.” Al Jazeera has not been able to verify what type of bullets were used.

The calls may be presented by prosecutors as evidence before the ICT, which has charged Hasina, her ministers and security officials with crimes against humanity. Hasina and two other officials were indicted on July 10, and the trial is scheduled to begin in August.

Hasina’s surveillance network, the NTMC, recorded these conversations. The NTMC has previously been accused of spying on not just opposition figures but even Hasina’s political allies.

Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor for the ICT, said the former prime minister knew she was being recorded.

“In some cases, the other side [would say we] … ‘should not discuss this over telephone’. And the reply was from the prime minister, ‘Yes, I know, I know, I know, I know, it is being recorded, no problem.’”

“She has dug a very deep ditch for others. Now she’s in the ditch,” Islam said.

Student protests started peacefully in June 2024 after the high court reintroduced an unpopular quota system that reserved state jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. Many students felt the system favoured supporters of the ruling Awami League party, which had led the freedom movement, and that many jobs in the civil service were not awarded on merit.

On July 16, student protester Abu Sayed was shot dead by police in the northern city of Rangpur. His death was a turning point in the July uprising, leading to a national outcry and intensifying the protests.

In one secret phone recording of Hasina’s ally and economics adviser, Salman F Rahman, he is heard trying to get hold of Sayed’s postmortem report. During the call, Rahman quizzes inspector general of police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, wanting to know what had happened to the report.

“Why is it taking so long to get the postmortem report? Who’s playing hide and seek? Rangpur Medical?” he asked, referring to Rangpur Medical College and Hospital, which was carrying out the autopsy on Sayed.

Rangpur Medical College Hospital’s Dr Rajibul Islam told Al Jazeera that police forced him to change Sayed’s postmortem report five times to remove any reference to multiple bullet wounds.

“They wanted to write a report stating that Abu Sayed Bhai died due to injuries from stone-throwing … [whereas] he died from police bullets.”

Twelve days after Sayed’s death, his family were flown to Dhaka for a televised event with the prime minister. In all, about 40 families were gathered – all of them had relatives killed in the protests.

“Hasina forced us to come to Ganabhaban,” said Sayed’s father, Maqbul Hossain, referring to the PM’s residence. “They forced us to come; otherwise, they might have tortured us in another way.”

As the cameras recorded the event, Hasina handed out money to each family. She told Sayed’s sister, Sumi Khatun: “We will deliver justice to your family.”

Khatun replied to the PM: “It was shown in the video that the police shot him. What is there to investigate here? Coming here was a mistake.”

In a statement to Al Jazeera, an Awami League spokesperson said Hasina had never used the phrase “lethal weapons”, and did not specifically authorise the security forces to use lethal force.

“This [Hasina’s phone] recording is either cherry-picked, doctored or both.”

The statement added that government efforts to investigate Abu Sayed’s death were “genuine”.