Nearly 200 Bangladeshis who were abducted by security forces during the rule of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are still missing. File photo Photo Courtesy: Manvendra Vashishtha Love
Nearly 200 Bangladeshis who were abducted by security forces during the rule of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are still missing, a commission investigating the disappeared said on Tuesday.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighboring India in August as a student-led uprising flooded the streets of the capital Dhaka with protesters, marking a dramatic end to her tough tenure.
His government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds of thousands of people.
An inquiry commission set up by the caretaker government now running the country said five people had been released from secret detention centers following Hasina’s ouster, but many were still unaccounted for.
Commission member Noor Khan said, “At least 200 people are unaccounted for. We are working to trace them.”
The commission said it had identified at least eight secret detention centers in Dhaka and its outskirts, some of which have cells as small as three by four feet (90 by 120 centimeters).
It said that there were carvings on the walls of these cells which showed that a record was kept of the number of days for which the inmates were kept in custody.
One commissioner said there were attempts by unidentified law enforcement agencies to destroy evidence of these secret detention centers after Hasina’s overthrow.
The commissioners said most of the missing persons cases brought to their attention have been blamed on the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) police unit.
RAB, along with seven of her senior officials, was sanctioned by Washington in 2021 in response to reports that she was guilty of some of the worst rights abuses committed during Hasina’s rule.
Commission chairman Moynul Islam Chowdhury said institutional failures in the government and judiciary have also allowed an environment of impunity to flourish under Hasina.
“He used the law enforcement agency not in the public interest, but to further his own agenda and political interest,” he said.
The commission was established by the interim government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus as part of its efforts to implement far-reaching democratic reforms.
Yunus had previously said that he had inherited a “completely broken” system of public administration, which required sweeping changes to prevent a return to autocracy in the future.
published – November 06, 2024 01:53 am IST