An inquiry commission set up by the interim government in Bangladesh said in a provisional report that it has found the involvement of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in alleged incidents of enforced disappearance.
The Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances estimates the number of enforced disappearances to be more than 3,500.
“The commission has found evidence of the involvement of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a trainer in incidents of enforced disappearance,” the press wing of the office of the Chief Advisor (CA) to de facto Prime Minister Muhammad Yunus said in a statement on Saturday night. ,
It said the ousted prime minister’s defense adviser, Major General (retd) Tariq Ahmed Siddiqui, former director general of the National Telecom Surveillance Center and dismissed Major General Ziaul Ahsan, and senior police officers Monirul Islam and Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid and several others Senior officers were found involved in those incidents.
Former military and police officers are on the run, most believed to be abroad, since Hasina’s Awami League regime was ousted from power on August 5 following a student-led rebellion.
The statement came as the five-member commission of inquiry into enforced disappearances submitted its interim report titled “Uncovering the Truth” to the Chief Advisor late Saturday night at his official Jamuna residence.
According to the statement, the commission’s chairman, retired Supreme Court Justice Mainul Islam Chaudhry, told Yunus that during the investigation he found a “systematic design” that allowed incidents of enforced disappearance to go undetected.
“The perpetrators of enforced disappearances or extrajudicial killings lacked information about the victims,” Chaudhary said.
The report said the police’s elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which draws people from the Army, Navy, Air Force and regular police; and other law enforcement agencies had collaborated with each other and deliberately fragmented the operation to capture, torture, and detain victims.
The Commission also proposed to repeal or completely amend the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, as well as abolish the RAB.
Rights activist and commission member Sajjad Hussain said they have filed 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances and investigated 758 of them so far. Of these, 200 people or 27 percent of the victims never returned, while the majority of those who returned were shown in records as arrested.
Apart from the chairman, the commission includes Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli, rights activist Noor Khan, private BRAC University teacher Nabila Idris and rights activist Sajjad Hussain.
Earlier in a press conference, the commission announced that they had found eight secret detention centers in Dhaka and its outskirts.
The panel chairman informed Yunus on Saturday that they would submit another interim report in March and would need at least another year to complete the investigation into all the allegations they received.
“You are indeed doing very important work. We are ready to give you all support,” Yunus was quoted as saying.
TV channels and social media aired interviews with several victims of alleged enforced disappearances, including former military officers and opposition activists active in opposition to Hasina’s regime.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
