Bangladesh's former government systematically committed "serious human rights violations" against student-led protesters, with up to 1,400 people killed and thousands of others injured, the U.N. Human

The United Nations human rights office on Wednesday estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks last summer in a crackdown on student-led protests against the now-ousted former prime minister.

The unrest began as student-led protests against quotas in civil service jobs and escalated into a countrywide movement to oust Hasina and her Awami League party following a deadly police crackdown. Thousands more were injured in the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971.

As many as 1,400 people were killed in former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s violent response to a student-led revolt, according to a U.N. inquiry.

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government was behind possible “crimes against humanity” as it strived to hold on to power last year, says the United Nations, warning the abuses could amount to “crimes against humanity”.

There are grounds to believe extrajudicial killings took place with the ‘knowledge and direction’ of the leadership, said the United Nations human rights body.