Nearly two years after the horrific incident in Ashulia during the July Mass Uprising where six protesters were burned inside a police vehicle, the pickup van has been recovered from Baipail in Savar. Initiatives are now underway to transfer and preserve the vehicle at the ‘July Mass Uprising Memorial Museum’.
The atrocity occurred on August 5, 2024, the day of the Sheikh Hasina government’s fall, in the Ashulia Police Station area of Savar. After opening fire on demonstrators, police loaded the bodies of the victims into a police pickup van and set it ablaze. According to documents from the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), six people died in the fire, with evidence indicating that at least one victim was still alive when the flames were ignited. Subsequent investigations and video footage reviews by the UN Human Rights Office confirmed the veracity of the event, leading to convictions by the ICT for those involved.
For nearly two years, this vital piece of case evidence lay under the open sky at a temporary police dumping site on privately owned land in Baipail, Savar. The van was traced on Thursday (October 1, 2026) during a retrieval operation on the property. As the news spread, local residents and activists from the ‘July Revolutionary Alliance’ (JRA) gathered at the scene. JRA President Saleh Mahmud Raihan and other members reported recovering burnt bone fragments, a key ring, and other potential evidentiary items near the vehicle. They raised serious concerns over why such critical evidence was left unprotected and alleged that attempts might have been made to destroy or damage it.
However, Ashulia Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Tarikul Islam firmly denied any allegations of evidence tampering. He clarified that due to a lack of adequate storage space at the police station, the vehicle was temporarily parked on rented land. Since the landowner requested the return of the property, the vehicle was being moved to the police’s own facility in Kabirpur, not being destroyed.
Regarding the matter, Ehsan Mahmud, Director General of the July Mass Uprising Memorial Museum, stated that the recovered pickup van serves as a historic symbol of the previous regime’s brutality and the July Mass Uprising. Official administrative and legal approval processes have already begun, and once finalized, the van will be brought to the museum for preservation and public display.
