Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina told then Dhaka South mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh over phone about using helicopters to control demonstrations, according to Al Jazeera which analysed the recording of the 18 July 2024 phone call.
In the same call, she also said that she had given an open order to use lethal weapons and shoot protesters wherever found, according to Al Jazeera's report published on Thursday.
The BBC had earlier analysed an 18 July 2024 call in which Hasina talked about ordering lethal force.
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.
The call in question was recorded by the National Telecommunications Monitoring Centre (NTMC), according to the report.
"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 in the call. "That has been instructed. I have stopped them so far … I was thinking about the students' safety."
Later in the call with Taposh, 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."
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 country's International Crimes Tribunal (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 the 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.
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."
After ruling Bangladesh for 15 years, Hasina fled to India on 5 August 2024, in the face of a student-led mass uprising against her and her government.
Before that, the crackdown on protesters from mid-July resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,400 people and injuries to more than 20,000, according to the country's ICT.
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