Bangladesh probes enforced disappearance by security forces

By AFP
August 29, 2024
Police detains a man from the University of Dhaka premises, a day after the clash between Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League, and anti-quota protesters, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 17, 2024. —Reuters
Police detains a man from the University of Dhaka premises, a day after the clash between Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League, and anti-quota protesters, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 17, 2024. —Reuters

DHAKA: Bangladesh´s new authorities on Wednesday opened an investigation into hundreds of enforced disappearances by security forces during the rule of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, the government said.

It includes the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) paramilitary force, accused of numerous rights abuses, and which was sanctioned by the United States for its role in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Human Rights Watch last year said security forces had committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Hasina came to power in 2009, and nearly 100 remain unaccounted for.

Many of those detained were from Hasina´s rivals, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country´s largest Islamist party.

Hasina´s government consistently denied the allegations, claiming some of those reported missing had drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.

The five-member committee, headed by retired high court judge Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, will also investigate other paramilitary police units, including the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), a government order late on Tuesday said.