Skip to main content

Bangladesh authorities probe enforced disappearance by security forces

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.

Hasina fled to India by helicopter on August 5 after weeks of student-led protests forced her to quit, ending her iron-fisted 15-year rule.

‘Disappearances and torture’

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 Tuesday said.

The UN rights office says both the RAB and BGB forces have “records of serious human rights violations, including enforced disappearances and torture and ill-treatment”.

The commission, ordered to begin work by the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has 45 working days to submit its report.

Sanjida Islam Tulee, a coordinator of a group campaigning for the release of people detained under Hasina, welcomed the commission.

“Most importantly, the report needs to be published fully and no information is kept hidden”, Tulee told AFP, who heads the group called Mayer Daak, meaning “The Call of the Mothers”.

Tulee, who along with those who searching for missing relatives met earlier this month with Yunus asking for action, said she wanted the commission to listen to every family without discrimination.

She said they wanted the return of those missing, and for those responsible to face justice.

More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to Hasina’s ouster, according to the United Nations rights team’s preliminary report, suggesting the toll was “likely an underestimate”.

The day after she fled, families gathered outside a military intelligence force building in Dhaka waiting desperately for their relatives.

But only a handful have been confirmed as released.



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/eZUlAPd
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ailing Pope Francis to embark on Asia trip, his longest ever, in September

Pope Francis will travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore from September 2-13, the Vatican said on Friday, announcing his first overseas trip of the year and the longest of his 11-year papacy. The Asia trip has been on the papal agenda for some time, but there had been doubts on whether the 87-year-old pontiff would embark on it given his increasing frailty, with a record of skipping engagements due to health problems. His last international journey was a two-day stay in Marseille, France in September. In November, he pulled out of a trip to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai because of a lung inflammation . Francis is now scheduled to be in Jakarta between Sept 3-6, Port Moresby and Vanimo between Sept 6-9, Dili September. 9-11 and Singapore Sept 11-13, his spokesman said in a statement. Vietnam, which had been suggested by the pope and Vatican officials as a possible further destination during the nearly two-week long Asia trip, was not mentioned. In ...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘A war out there’: Maple Leafs survive shootout thriller in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Whew. They needed this one, even if they didn’t wholly deserve it. For a Monday night in Salt Lake City, the stakes felt unusually high for the sagging, road-weary Toronto Maple Leafs .  Heading into their inaugural game at Delta Center, the Leafs had dropped three straight, blown a couple leads, slipped out of first place, and  distracted  the fan base by propositioning their best player with a trade.  Worse: Their process hasn’t been tight for a couple weeks. Mistakes have crept in. Speed is giving their defence issues. And their razor-sharp goaltenders have begun to look human. Head coach Craig Berube held an intense team meeting Sunday, following Saturday’s 7-4 outclassing in Denver. Multiple players spoke up. Captain Auston Matthews said they’d reached look-in-the-mirror time. “The really bad games have a good way of being the biggest learning experiences,” thoughtful goaltender Joseph Woll said, following Monday’s slump-snuffing, nail-b...
Post a Comment
Read more

A diary of (near) default - 2023 was a year of economic uncertainty in Pakistan

Despite having little in common, even our political parties could agree on one thing: Pakistan’s economic situation was dire in 2023. The year saw Pakistan go through a long and rocky road to finding some semblance of economic stability — if it can even be called that — while weathering political and social turmoil. Pakistanis also experienced a double whammy this year: the one-two punches of the worst economic crisis in decades and all-time high inflation. Add to that the gut punch of the aftermath of the catastrophic floods of 2022 began to settle in. Flood victims receive boiled rice from relief workers, after taking refuge on a motorway, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Charsadda, Pakistan on August 27, 2022 — Reuters In 2023, according to the World Bank , over 39.4 per cent of the population fell below the poverty line, which means over 12.5 million people are living in meagre conditions. Additionally, 8.5 million people face acute food insecurity due ...
Post a Comment
Read more