Disappeared, still missing

Families of people who disappeared during the Awami League regime are still waiting for answers, as a new law before parliament raises hopes of accountability but also questions over whether investigations will be sufficiently independent.

The issue comes into focus as Bangladesh marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances today, with rights advocates and victims’ families pressing for truth, justice and information on the fate of those still missing.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances received 1,913 complaints and, after scrutiny and removal of duplicate or non-qualifying cases, retained 1,569 for investigation.

Its final report, submitted on Jan. 4, 2026, found 251 people still missing and said the bodies of 36 victims had been recovered. It concluded that disappearances under the previous Hasina government were largely politically motivated and involved institutions at the highest levels.

Several law-enforcement and security agencies were implicated, along with secret detention facilities such as ‘Aynaghar’. The commission estimated the actual number of victims could be between 4,000 and 6,000.

The report identified prominent cases involving BNP leaders M Ilias Ali, Chowdhury Alam, Salahuddin Ahmed and Hummam Quader Chowdhury, Jamaat leader Abdullahil Amaan Azmi, Barrister Mir Ahmed Bin Quasem and former ambassador Maroof Zaman.

Among victims who returned alive, 75 per cent were leaders or activists of Jamaat-Shibir and 22 per cent were affiliated with BNP and its organisations, the commission said.

Among those who remained missing, 68 per cent were BNP-affiliated and 22 per cent were associated with Jamaat-Shibir.

Nabila Idris, former commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, told The New Nation that provisions in the proposed law for investigating enforced disappearance cases might not guarantee genuine independence.

“Victims’ families often cannot identify which force carried out an abduction, particularly when individuals are taken away by people in plain clothes using the identities of other agencies,” she said.

“Even when a force is identified, transferring the investigation to another law-enforcement or security agency may not guarantee independence, particularly where multiple forces have worked jointly in operations.”

Nabila said Bangladesh’s obligations under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance require the state to prevent suspected perpetrators from influencing investigations.

“The real test is whether investigators are genuinely outside the command chain of the forces implicated in the alleged disappearance,” she said.

Legal framework
Bangladesh acceded to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) on Aug. 30, 2024, with the accession registered with the United Nations on Sept. 29.

The convention requires states to prevent and criminalise enforced disappearance, investigate allegations, prosecute perpetrators and provide remedies. It also recognises families’ right to know the truth and the fate of missing relatives.

The move was followed by the formation of the Commission of Inquiry, but Bangladesh still lacked a standalone law criminalising enforced disappearance.

The interim government introduced the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Redress Ordinance 2025, defining disappearance as a continuing offence, criminalising secret detention centres and empowering the National Human Rights Commission to investigate complaints.

A later amendment allowed tribunals to declare a person “disappeared” after five years.

The ordinances lapsed after the 2026 election, a move criticised by Human Rights Watch.

The government has now proposed the Prevention and Remedy of Enforced Disappearance Bill, 2026, which seeks to make enforced disappearance a distinct criminal offence.

The Cabinet approved the draft on Aug. 3 and it was placed before parliament on Aug. 27 for scrutiny by the relevant standing committee.

The bill defines enforced disappearance as the arrest, detention or abduction of a person by a government official or member of a disciplined force, followed by refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or concealment of the person’s fate or whereabouts.

It treats the offence as continuing until the person’s location, condition or fate is established and proposes penalties including life imprisonment and fines.

Provisions concerning the death penalty, investigations, trials and the role of the NHRC have prompted debate.

Human rights organisations have also raised concerns about provisions that would leave police responsible for investigating disappearance cases despite allegations involving police and other security agencies.

Law Minister Md Asaduzzaman told parliament on April 30 that 1,855 cases had been filed nationwide over killings, enforced disappearances and torture allegedly committed during the previous regime.

Of these, 799 were murder cases and 1,056 involved other charges.

Investigations had been completed in 158 cases, with charge sheets submitted, while the remaining 1,697 cases were still under investigation.

The government has also decided to establish a directorate to rehabilitate victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and their families.

Global experience
Countries including Argentina, Chile, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Colombia and Morocco have used combinations of prosecutions, truth commissions, missing-person searches and reparations to address enforced disappearances.

Peru, Nepal, Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Philippines have also adopted various mechanisms.

For Bangladesh, the central test will be whether the new legal framework can deliver independent investigations, accountability and answers for families still waiting to learn what happened to their loved ones.