Hasian era Enforced disappearances targeted opposition
Staff Reporter :
A new report by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances has revealed that incidents of enforced disappearance in the country were systematically used as a tool to suppress opposition during the 16-year rule of the Awami League.
According to the five-member commission, led by Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury, a total of 1,564 incidents occurred between 2009 and 2024, disproportionately affecting leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami.
The commission’s final report, submitted to the Chief Adviser on 4 January, presents a year-by-year account showing that enforced disappearances spiked around election periods.
In 2012, 61 cases were documented, more than doubling in 2013 to 128, ahead of the 2014 parliamentary elections.
Similar patterns were observed around the 2018 and 2024 elections, with opposition leaders being selectively targeted.
The report highlights that BNP and Jamaat activists were often picked up en masse by law enforcement agencies prior to political rallies and protests.
In total, 948 people were subjected to enforced disappearance due to their political affiliation, of whom 157 remain missing.
While Jamaat leaders constituted the majority of those temporarily disappeared, BNP leaders and activists accounted for 68% of those who remain unaccounted for. Jamaat-Shibir members made up 22% of the total missing.
According to the report, the rise and fall of enforced disappearances closely mirrored moments of political turbulence and security crises.
Notably, 2016 marked the highest number of cases at 215, followed by 194 in 2017 and 192 in 2018. A gradual decline was recorded from 2019 onwards, with 47 cases documented in 2024—the year the Awami League was ousted following the student–public uprising in August.
The report also draws attention to the connection between institutional leadership changes and the reduction of disappearances.
For instance, the removal of Major General Ziaul Ahsan from his post as additional director general (Operations) of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in 2016 coincided with a drop in enforced disappearances.
Similarly, international pressure, including U.S. sanctions on RAB in December 2021, briefly disrupted the practice.
However, the commission noted that these declines did not eliminate the practice altogether. Many individuals later appeared in custody or were produced before courts, but a number of cases remain unresolved.
The report emphasizes that enforced disappearance in Bangladesh was not a general law-and-order issue, but a politically motivated practice used to suppress dissenting views.
The report further notes that the Awami League, facing both national and international criticism for extrajudicial killings after coming to power in 2009, shifted strategies to reduce scrutiny.
By adopting enforced disappearance as a tool instead of outright extrajudicial killings, the government could continue suppressing opposition while projecting a more compliant human rights image internationally.
Political analysts note that three controversial elections—2014, 2018, and 2024—coincided with spikes in enforced disappearances.
While the 2014 and 2024 elections were boycotted by major parties, the 2018 election saw full participation but was widely criticized for alleged ballot manipulation, earning the moniker “night-time vote.”
Page 16 of the commission’s report explicitly states that opposition leaders and activists were targeted ahead of elections, reflecting the deliberate use of enforced disappearance as a political weapon.
The report also identifies 1,913 complaints filed to the commission, of which 1,569 were verified as enforced disappearance cases, and 287 fell into the “missing and dead” category.
The findings underscore the political nature of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh, particularly targeting those associated with BNP and Jamaat.
The report calls for strengthened accountability mechanisms and highlights the urgent need for a democratic government capable of ensuring justice for victims.
As Bangladesh reflects on these findings, the report serves as both a record of systemic abuses under the previous government and a stark warning about the use of state power against political opponents.