Enforced disappearances in Bangladesh are cases in which the Government of Bangladesh directly or indirectly kidnaps people and holds them incommunicado. [1] According to a Dhaka-based human rights group Odhikar, at least 402 people have become victim of enforced disappearance from 2009 to 2017 under the current Awami League administration. [2] These incidents along with extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh has been criticized by The United Nations and human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. [3] [4] Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a special paramilitary unit in Bangladesh, is alleged to be behind most of these disappearances even though RAB claimed these allegations to be false. [5] The current Awami League government denies involvement in these forced disappearances even when victims later surface in custody. [2]
According to the report of a domestic human rights organization, 82 people were forcefully disappeared from January to September in 2014. [4] The activists and leaders of opposition parties constitute the majority of the victims. After the disappearances, at least 39 of the victims were found dead while others remained missing. [6] [7] Before the controversial national election of 2014, at least 20 opposition men were picked up by the security forces. [8] [9] At least 89 people have been victims of enforced disappearances in 2016. [10]
In 2016, the families of the victims of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh founded a platform Mayer Daak to press their demand to know the whereabouts of their loved ones who disappeared under mysterious situation. [11] [12] On August 14, 2022, Netra News, which is blocked in Bangladesh, published a whistleblower report alleging that Bangladesh officials were holding and torturing victims of enforced disappearances at Aynaghar, a secret detention facility (house of mirrors). [13]
It first occurred after the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's regime between 1972 and 1975. Many members of Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal, army officers and other opposition party members were picked up by Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini, an elite para-military force formed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. [14] It has continued since then and through the formation of Rapid Action Battalion. Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Since then, during her regime, around 402 people have been forcefully disappeared by the state security forces. [2] [15] [16] [17] [6] [18] [19]
After the Awami League party assumed power in the country through election in 2009, law and order situation began to deteriorate with opposition men being attacked by the ruling party men that left several opposition men killed and many others injured. [20] [21] [22] Armed conflicts and violence erupted in the university campuses throughout the country. [23] Political activities of the opposition parties were often attacked. [24] From 2010, picking up of opposition leaders and activists by the state security forces began to surge in the country.
Throughout most of 2013, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its alliance observed nationwide general strikes and blockades in demand of a non-partisan interim government or a caretaker government to hold the next general election of 2014. The E.U., the U.S. and the Commonwealth announced that they would not send observers since they were concerned about the credibility of the election. [25] [26] [27] Before the controversial national election of 2014, 20 opposition men were picked up by security forces. [8] [9] [28] [29] As of 2016 [update] , they remained missing. [8] [9]
From 2014 to July 2019, 344 people were victims of forced disappearance in Bangladesh. 40 of them were found dead, 66 were found under arrest in government custody and 203 still remain missing according to Ain o Salish Kendra. Those who have reappeared remained silent about the period they were missing. [30]
On 17 April 2012, Ilias Ali, another prominent leader of the main opposition party BNP, went missing after last being seen in Dhaka at midnight with his driver. [31] [32] [33] His private car was found abandoned near his Dhaka home. [33] In the following days, five of his party men died and many were injured as they observed strikes and demonstration programs in protest of the disappearance. [32] The incident got much media coverage.
Aminul Islam, a Bangladeshi trade unionist, was a member of Bangladesh Garment & Industrial Workers Federation and an organizer for the Bangladesh Center of Worker Solidarity. [34] On 5 April 2012, Islam's dead body was found near Dhaka after being disappeared earlier. [34] [35] The body bore marks of torture. [34] [35] His disappearance and murder sparked much international criticism. [35]
In August 2016, sons of three opposition leaders were picked up by Bangladesh security forces and were taken to unknown places. The victims were a former brigadier-general of the Bangladesh Army Abdullahil Amaan Azmi, son of Ghulam Azam; Hummam Quader Chowdhury, son of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury; and Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, son of Mir Quasem Ali. [36] Amaan Azmi was forcedly picked up from his residence in front of his family members. In all three cases, there were multiple witnesses, but the state police denied their involvements in the abductions. [37] [36] Later, the United Nations expressed concern over the abductions of three men, and urged the Sheikh Hasina's government to check the increasing number of cases of forced disappearances in the country. [37] Hummam Quader Chowdhury returned home in March 2017 and reported that he could not "remember" who detained him. [38] As of present, there is no news of the whereabouts two other men, Amaan Azmi and Mir Ahmad.
A prosecution witness who was abducted allegedly by plainclothed police on 5 November 2012 from the gate of Supreme Court after he had decided to testify in favour of an accused war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee, who at the time was being tried before the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh. He was later traced to Kolkata's Dumdum prison. [39]
On 27 November 2013, former BNP lawmaker Saiful Islam Hiru and BNP leader Humayun Kabir Parvez were abducted while going to Comilla from Laksham. Convicted murderer of Narayanganj Seven Murder, former RAB-11 official Lt Col (sacked) Tareque Sayeed is the number one accused in the case. RAB-11 is accused of burning 2 cars and killing Iqbal Mahmud Jewel in front of BNP leader Sahab Uddin Sabu in Lakshmipur on 23 December 2013. RAB-11 is also accused of throwing down Jamaat leader Foyez Ahmed from the roof of a 2 storied building. RAB -11 is also accused of abducting businessman Tajul Islam in a Hi-ace microbus on 17 February 2013. 13 days after abduction, Tajul's dead body was found from Meghna river. RAB-11 and Tareque Sayeed is accused in the case of abduction of businessman Ismail Hossain who has been missing since 7 February 2014. [85] [86] [87]
In April 2014, bodies of seven men were discovered from the Shitalakkhya river. They were strangled, blindfolded and thrown into the river, four days after they were kidnapped few kilometres from Narayanganj district court by RAB men who are accused to do it as contract killing. [19] [88] [89] In this case, on 16 January 2016 ex-AL men, ex-RAB officials among 26 were handed death penalty [90] as the charges of abduction, murder, concealing the bodies, conspiracy and destroying evidences were proved beyond any doubt. [91] On 12 December 2016 RAB claimed arrest of a man from Dhaka who took Tk 50 lakh, posing as a source of law enforcers, from a family, in assurance of tracing a missing member of the family. [92]
On 23 November 2017 in parliament, the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina claimed that people also disappeared in other countries. [2] Elite paramilitary force, RAB's Director of Media and Legal Wing, Mufti Mahmud Khan told Al Jazeera about the involvement of RAB in these forced disappearance that these were false allegations and that "RAB is there to curb crimes and it is just doing its job." [5] Law Minister Anisul Huq alleged that the disappearance claims were part of a plot by opposition parties to discredit the government. [3] Sajeeb Wazed, son of Sheikh Hasina, wrote in an article that the Bangladesh police had not uncovered any evidence suggestive of the government's involvement behind any reported disappearance. [93]
The incidents of enforced disappearances were condemned by both domestic and international human rights organizations. The main opposition party BNP has held the government responsible for conducting these forced disappearances, [94] [95] and demanded an UN-sponsored investigation into such cases. [96] The British parliament frequently expressed concerns over the forced disappearances of political opponents in Bangladesh. [97] [98] During her visit to Bangladesh in 2012, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern over the disappearance of Ilyas Ali and Aminul Islam. [32] Despite the demands for the government initiatives to probe such disappearances, investigations into such cases were absent. [9] [99] [100]
In July 2017, Human Rights Watch published an 82-page report accusing the Bangladesh government of secret detention, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings of political opposition members. [101] It called for a halt in such human rights violations. The report also contained gruesome accounts of forcefully picking up and subsequent disappearances of political opposition members at the hands of law enforcement authorities.
During May 2018, the United Nations' High Commissioner of Human Rights and 56 other organizations expressed their concerns about Bangladesh's enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings in Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations. [102]
Siddique ul-Islam, known popularly as Bangla Bhai, also known as Jawad uddin attariAzizur Rôhman, was a Bangladeshi terrorist and the military commander of the Al Qaeda affiliated radical Islamist organization Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, known in popular usage as the JMJB. Most active in the north-western section of Bangladesh around the Rajshahi region, Bangla Bhai gained a nationwide and worldwide notoriety for bombings and other terrorist activities.
Rapid Action Battalion or RAB, is an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police. This elite force consists of members of the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Police, Border Guard Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Ansar. It was formed on 26 March 2004 as RAT, and commenced operations on 14 April 2004.
Bangladesh Islami Chhatrashibir is an Islamic student organization based in Bangladesh. It was established on 06 February 1977. The organisation is generally understood to be the student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and several of the leaders of the student organisation have gone on to become notable leaders within Jamaat. The organisation has a significant presence in higher educational institutions of the country such as University of Dhaka, University of Chittagong, Rajshahi University, SUST, BUET, DUET, Medical College. Recently however, the student Organisation has been under pressure from the Bangladesh government led by the ruling party Awami League and its student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League.
The Bangladesh Chhatra League, formerly known as the East Pakistan Student League, often simply called the Chhatra League, is a students' political organisation in Bangladesh, founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 4 January 1948. BSL is the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League.
M Ilias Ali was a Bangladeshi politician and member of the Jatiya Sangsad (2001–2006) representing the Sylhet-2 constituency. He served as the organising secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He, along with his personal car driver, Ansar Ali, went missing on 18 April 2012. Later that day, local police recovered his abandoned car near his residence in Banani neighborhood and found Ansar's cellphone inside. They have not been seen since. On the tenth anniversary of his disappearance, Netra News, an independent news platform in Sweden, reported on 21 April 2022, that Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite Bangladeshi police unit, had carried out the disappearance. The platform cited leaked confidential documents and internal investigations documents from RAB to reach the conclusion.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is a specialized intelligence and investigation wing of the Bangladesh Police. It is headquartered in Malibagh, Dhaka and maintains a training school named the Detective Training School. Personnel attached to this wing essentially work in plain clothes. Mohammad Ali Mia, BPM, PPM is the head of the Criminal Investigation Department.
The Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) (Bengali: আনসারুল্লাহ বাংলা টিম), also known as Ansar-al Islam Bangladesh/Ansar Bangla is an islamic organization in Bangladesh, implicated in crimes including some brutal attacks and murders of atheist bloggers from 2013 to 2015 and a bank heist in April 2015. The gang was outlawed days after the bank robbery by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 25 May 2015. The group has been claimed by police to be linked to Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh.
The Shapla Square protests also known as Operation Shapla or Operation Flash Out by security forces refers to the protests, and subsequent shootings, of 5 and 6 May 2013 at Shapla Square located in the Motijheel district, the main financial area of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The protests were organized by the Islamist pressure group, Hefazat-e Islam, who were demanding the enactment of a blasphemy law. The government responded to the protests by cracking down on the protesters using a combined force drawn from the police, Rapid Action Battalion and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh to drive the protesters out of Shapla Square.
Seven Murders of the Narayanganj was the enforced disappearance and murder of seven people in Bangladesh, including a Panel mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation and a lawyer in April 2014. 27 Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) members, including three top RAB 11 officials, were involved in the abduction and killing.
Lieutenant Colonel (Dismissed) Tareque Sayeed Mohammad is a former Bangladeshi Army officer who was convicted in the Narayanganj Seven murder case. He was the commanding officer of Bangladesh elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-11. He is the Son in Law of former minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury.
Crossfire refers to the death of a person by gun shot, oftentimes under the custody of a law enforcement agency in Bangladesh. There are accusations that it is staged extrajudicial killing. In March 2010, the then director general of the elite law enforcement agency of Bangladesh, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said that since it was started in 2004 RAB had killed 622 people. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO, has described RAB as a Bangladeshi government death squad. Odhikar, a Dhaka-based human rights organization, reported at least 1,169 people lost their lives in extrajudicial killings between January 2009 and May 2016 in Bangladesh. According to Odhikar, in June 2016, extrajudicial killings in the country took at least 24 lives. According to another rights group, Ain O Salish Kendra, 79 people were killed in so-called shootouts while in police custody in Bangladesh in the first six months of 2016. The police were involved in 37 of these deaths. Of them, seven had been in killed in crossfire with Detective Branch (DB) officials. Bangladesh police forces shot dead 130 people in a Philippines-style drugs crackdown in three weeks starting from May 2018.
Salahuddin Ahmed is a Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician who served as the state minister of communication and a member of parliament from Cox's Bazar-1 constituency during 1996–2006. He was the spokesperson of the party. In 2015, he allegedly enforced disappeared in Dhaka and reappeared two months later in Shillong, India under Indian police custody. In 2018, he was acquitted by the Indian court. Later on February 28, 2023, he was also acquitted by the appellate court.
Mayer Daak is a platform of the families of the people who fell victim to enforced disappearance allegedly by government agencies during the rule of the Awami League led government from 2009 to until date in Bangladesh. The platform was launched with the common interest of the family members of the victims of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh to learn the fate of their beloved one, who went missing after men in plainclothes posing as law enforcers picked them up from various places of the country.
Abdullahil Amaan Azmi is a former Bangladeshi Army officer and the son of Ghulam Azam, the former Amir of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. He was a victim of Forced disappearance in Bangladesh.
Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman, also known as Mir Ahmad, is a Bangladeshi born British-trained barrister and human rights activist. He is a victim of enforced disappearance and is believed to have been abducted by security forces of the government of Bangladesh. He is the son of late Mir Quasem Ali, a prominent leader of the opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and was a member of his father's legal defence team before his abduction.
Hasinur Rahman Bir Protik is a former Bangladesh Army and Rapid Action Battalion officer. He had the rank of Lieutenant Colonel when he was sacked from the army. He was a victim of forced disappearance in Bangladesh and had been missing for 16 months.
A series of rallies, demonstrations, and blockades opposing the visit of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were held in Bangladesh from 19 to 29 March, on the celebration of the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan. Accusing Narendra Modi of committing crimes against humanity during the 2002 Gujarat riots, the protesters agitated against what they alleged were India's anti-Muslim policies and India's interference in Bangladeshi politics. Protesters demanded the cancellation of the Bangladesh government's invitation to the Indian Prime Minister. The otherwise peaceful protests turned violent when the protesters were attacked by the supporters of the ruling Awami League party along with a crackdown by the law-enforcement agencies, causing the deaths of several protesters throughout the last week of March 2021 in Bangladesh. Initially launched by progressive student organizations including the Bangladesh Students Union, Bangladesh Sadharon Chhatra Odhikar Songrokkhon Parishad, and the Socialist Students' Front, the demonstrations were later joined by the Islamic group Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh.
Mohammad Anwar Latif Khan is a Bangladesh Army Colonel and the Sector Commander of Border Guards Bangladesh in Rajshahi. He is the former Additional Director General (Operations) at the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) an elite multi-service unit of the Bangladesh Police and oversaw crackdowns on Islamist militants. He has been sanctioned by the United States for his activities in RAB. He had previously commanded RAB-5, RAB-7, and RAB-11.
The Bangladesh Chhatra League, formerly East Pakistan Student League, often simply called the Chhatra League, is a students' political organisation in Bangladesh, founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 4 January 1948. BSL is the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League. It's played important role in the Bangladesh War of Independence but after 1972 it split into two factions on the basis of alliance to Shekh Mujibur Rahman. But later it has been repeatedly accused of using torture, extortion, violence, forced prostitution, and killings to instill fear. At least 33 people were killed and 1,500 got seriously injured from attacks by BSL between 2009 and 2014. Number of fatalities rose to 129 between 2014 and 2018 while 31 people were killed in 2018 alone.
Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF), also known as Bom Party or Bawm Party, is a banned ethno-nationalist and separatist political organization in Bangladesh based in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Established by Nathan Bom in 2017, KNF aims to establish a separate autonomous state for Bawm people with nine upazilas of Rangamati and Bandarban district. According to Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies, Kuki-Chin National Front has received weapons from the Kachin State of Myanmar, and also has ties with Karen rebel. Its armed wing is Kuki-Chin National Army.