Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 since the anti-quota protests first started in mid-July.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A case of enforced disappearance was filed on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) against Bangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and several others, including former ministers of her Cabinet, on the charge of kidnapping a lawyer in 2015.

The case is the second to be filed against 76-year-old Hasina since she resigned and fled to India on August 5 following widespread protests against her Awami League-led government over a controversial job quota system.

The victim of the forced disappearance, Supreme Court lawyer Sohel Rana filed the case application, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

Also read: Thousands protest over Bangladesh’s ‘enforced disappearances’

The court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Farzana Shakila Sumu Chowdhury ordered the allegations to be accepted as a case.

Other accused in the case include senior ministers of Hasina’s Cabinet, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, former Law Minister Anisul Haq, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shahidul Haque, former Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Benazir Ahmed, and 25 unidentified members of the RAB.

“On 10 February 2015, I was detained from Sector 5 in Uttara and forced into a vehicle. As soon as I was inside the car, I was nearly made unconscious by electric shocks to my ears and genitals,” the report quoted Mr. Rana as saying.

“After enduring various forms of brutal torture over time, I was eventually released in August in Godagari, Rajshahi,” he said.

On Tuesday, a murder case was lodged against Ms. Hasina and six others over the death of a grocery shop owner during last month’s violent clashes that led to the fall of her government.

Also read | Violence in Bangladesh after Hasina’s ouster stirs fear within Hindu minority in country

Over 230 people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 since the anti-quota protests first started in mid-July.

An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led government, and its Chief Adviser, 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, announced the portfolios of his 16-member council of advisors last week.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) activists form a human chain to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, along a street in Dhaka on August 30, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters marched on August 30 demanding information on hundreds of people they say security forces have abducted during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s nearly 15 years in power.

Opposition supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies joined families of those missing to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, many with black gags over their mouths.

The government denies the allegations of disappearances and extrajudicial killings, saying some of those reported missing drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.

National elections are due in Bangladesh by the end of January, but rights groups and foreign governments have long raised concerns over efforts by Ms. Hasina’s government to silence criticism and stamp out political dissent.

“I am not just afraid… every single day I wake up, I am absolutely terrified,” said Humam Quader Chowdhury, a BNP official.

He said he had been detained by security forces for seven months.

Mr. Chowdhury told protesters in the capital Dhaka that, during his detention, he saw a senior official on television deny he was in custody.

Ten-year-old Mariam Bushra held a photograph of her missing father, opposition activist and lawyer Ahmad Bin Quasem.

“I want the return of my father,” she said.

Human Rights Watch said security forces have committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Ms. Hasina came to power in 2009, and nearly 100 remain missing.

The others were later released, produced in court or reported to have “died during an armed exchange with security forces”, HRW said.

“Bangladesh authorities are fooling nobody by continuing to deny the reality of enforced disappearances, and instead are prolonging the suffering of families,” Julia Bleckner, HRW’s senior Asia researcher, said Wednesday.

Security forces are accused of detaining tens of thousands of opposition activists, killing hundreds in extrajudicial encounters and disappearing hundreds of leaders and supporters.

The elite Rapid Action Battalion security force and seven of its senior officers were sanctioned by Washington in 2021 in response to those alleged rights abuses.