The U.N. human rights office estimates 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.

Officials from Bangladesh's former government and security apparatus systematically committed serious human rights violations against protesters staging mass demonstrations last summer, the U.N. human rights chief said on Wednesday.

Up to 1,400 people were killed in last year's anti-government protests in Bangladesh, most of them by security forces, the United Nations estimates. UN human rights investigators accuse the deposed government of Sheikh Hasina of a brutal response that they warn could amount to "crimes against humanity".