In a new report, the Geneva-based office says security and intelligence services "systematically engaged" in rights violations that could amount to crimes against humanity and require further investigation.
Citing "various credible sources", the rights office says as many as 1400 people may have been killed in the protests between July 1 and August 15, and thousands more were injured, "the vast majority of whom were shot by Bangladesh's security forces".
UN human rights chief Volker Turk cited signs that "extrajudicial killings, extensive arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture" were conducted with the knowledge and co-ordination of the political leadership and top security officials as a way to suppress the protests.
"To remain in power, the former government tried systematically to suppress these protests with increasingly violent means," the report said.
It found "patterns of security forces deliberately and impermissibly killing or maiming protesters, including incidents where people were shot at point-blank range."
The fact-finding team was deployed to Bangladesh at the invitation of the country's interim leader, the Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, to look into the uprising that ultimately drove former leader Sheikh Hasina to flee to India.
What began as peaceful demonstrations by students frustrated with a quota system for government jobs unexpectedly grew into a major uprising against Hasina and her ruling Awami League party.
with EFE
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