Deterioration of human rights situation must stop

It is deeply disappointing that although the authoritarian Hasina government has fallen during the August mass uprising 2024, the culture of impunity and the dysfunction of state institutions continue to exist.

The most shameful chapter of the human rights situation in 2025 was ‘mob violence’ and lynching.

The grim picture has been presented in the annual reports of the country’s three leading human rights organizations — ASK, MSF, and HRSS – at the end of 2025.

According to ASK, 197 people were killed in mob beatings over the course of the year — nearly double the number recorded the previous year.

When people are beaten to death despite pleading for their lives with folded hands, in the face of police inaction, it becomes clear that even the most minimal trust of citizens in the state has eroded.

Vandalising shrines in the name of so-called ‘Tawhidi mobs’, attacking Baul singers, and forming mobs to demolish art and culture centres can in no way be signs of a non-discriminatory state.

According to the organisations’ data, the number of deaths in prisons and in the custody of law enforcement agencies is also alarming.

These incidents occurred in law enforcement custody, as a result of torture, or under the pretext of so-called ‘crossfire’, ‘shootouts’, or “gunfights’. Such deaths turn the commitment to ensuring the rule of law into a mockery.

The MSF report documents 641 cases of unidentified bodies recovered throughout the year.

Despite extensive police patrols and surveillance, the administration has no satisfactory explanation for how hundreds of bodies — many with hands and feet bound or stuffed into sacks — continue to be found.

In addition, more than a hundred deaths due to political violence, and particularly the loss of 39 lives in internal clashes within the BNP, demonstrate a severe lack of tolerance even within political parties themselves.

Besides, according to ASK and MSF, between 400 and 600 journalists have faced torture and harassment.

We believe that various forms of disorder may emerge in the aftermath of a mass uprising, but such a situation cannot be allowed to persist for a year and a half.

Every incident of mob violence or extrajudicial killing is, in reality, a reflection of the government’s failure.

The administration and law enforcement agencies cannot continue to rely on ‘old excuses’.

If the real perpetrators are not swiftly brought to justice and police inaction is not addressed, this anarchy will engulf the entire state.

Thus, the just elected BNP party MPs who are going to take oath within days have to take steps so that such occurrences do not recur.