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.

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.

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.

The United Nations has accused Bangladesh’s ousted regime, led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, of potentially committing crimes against humanity during the brutal handling of last year’s protests that reportedly killed 1,

UN human rights investigators accuse the deposed government of Sheikh Hasina of a brutal response that they warn could amount to "crimes against humanity". They found "an official policy to attack and violently repress anti-government protesters and sympathisers",

Bangladesh's former government was behind systematic attacks and killings of protesters as it tried to hold onto power last year, the UN said Wednesday, warning the abuses could amount to "crimes against humanity".