Staff Reporter :
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has published a report alleging that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, along with several senior military and civil officials, was involved in incidents of enforced disappearances.
The report states: “Hasina, along with high-ranking officials, including Major General (Retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, Major General Ziaul Ahsan, and senior police officers, played a role in overseeing the disappearances.”
This information is detailed in a recently released 50-page report titled “After the Monsoon Revolution: A Roadmap to Lasting Security Sector Reform in Bangladesh.”
On 14 December, the national commission investigating enforced disappearances published its initial report, estimating that over 3,500 individuals were forcibly disappeared during Hasina’s administration. According to HRW,
officials involved in these disappearances confirmed that Sheikh Hasina and senior members of her government were aware of the incommunicado detentions.
Following Hasina’s departure from the country, three individuals were released from secret detention centres, despite years of official denials that they were in custody.
Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, a lawyer and former detainee, described the conditions in one such facility as being “meticulously designed to inflict suffering worse than death.”
The national commission’s report further disclosed that torture was not only systematic but also deeply embedded within institutional practices.
HRW has called on the government to implement the commission’s recommendation to dismantle the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a counterterrorism unit comprising seconded police and military personnel, which has been implicated in numerous cases of extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances.
In response to the findings, RAB chief AKM Shahidur Rahman acknowledged the existence of the unit’s secret detention centres and expressed a willingness to comply with any decision by the interim government regarding the disbandment of the force.
HRW highlighted Bangladesh’s history of politically driven influence over law enforcement and recommended that the interim government establish independent civilian oversight of security forces.
This should include empowering the national human rights commission to conduct unannounced inspections of all detention facilities.
Additionally, HRW emphasised the need to enforce international standards on the use of force and to ensure accountability for any security personnel found to have violated these principles.
