Victims of 'enforced disappearance' in Bangladesh demand impartial probe under UN

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Over a hundred people, including dozens of victims of alleged "enforced disappearances," staged a protest rally in Dhaka University on Thursday, demanding that Bangladesh law enforcement agencies conduct impartial investigations into all such cases in the country, but only under UN supervision.

The rally was attended by many students from several universities who were purportedly victims of enforced disappearances, mostly by the Bangladeshi elite police unit, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

On Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet raised alarm about human rights violations during a press conference in the capital Dhaka at the end of her four-day visit to the country.

Many enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings have been attributed to the RAB, and there has been a lack of accountability for such violations, she asserted, adding that "there are continued, alarming allegations of both short-term and long-term enforced disappearances, and concerns about a lack of due process and judicial safeguards."

Several students at the protest recounted their ordeals in police custody after being forcibly disappeared.

"I was picked up by the RAB on March 26 last year and they kept me in their torture cell for many days without bringing me before any court," Mina Alamin, a university student, told to rally participants in his speech.

Later, he told Anadolu Agency that he spent most of his time in RAB custody with his face covered by a black cloth and both wrists handcuffed.

"Even they did not release my hands while I was sleeping. I asked them to inform my parents of my whereabouts. However, they ignored my request "Alamin recounted his period in detention.

Another victim of enforced disappearance, Md. Rashed Khan, told Anadolu Agency, "without any warrant or case, police picked me from my house and physically assaulted in front of my wife and other family members."

Khan, a former acting convener of a students' rights forum, Chhatro Odhikar Parishad (Students Rights Council), stated that police mercilessly struck him on sensitive parts of his body.

"Our only crime was that we stood up to prevalent injustices in the educational sector and denounced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangladesh," he explained.

He claimed that the police threatened him with death while illegally torturing him in jail.

The torture he endured while in RAB detention is a nightmare for him, according to Imran Al Nazir, who also claimed that he was apprehended by RAB sleuths on Oct. 20, 2021, from public transportation in Dhaka.

"After an hours-long physical assault, they took me to a field in the dead of night, folding my eyes with a black ribbon. They told me they were going to shoot me, and that it would be the final night of my life," Nazir told Anadolu Agency.

"One of them was telling another cop in front of me that they had been ordered to shoot me four times, which caused me to panic," he added.

Chowdhury Alam and Korshed Alam Mintu, two brothers and rally participants, also claimed to be unaware of their brother's whereabouts who has been missing since June 25, 2010.

"We still have no idea where my brother is. My brother's body must be returned if the police killed him," he said.

- Bangladesh denies

However, the country's Home Minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal refuted the claims in a new conversation with Anadolu Agency, insisting that there has been no case of enforced disappearance and that personnel of law enforcement agencies act under their jurisdiction.

"There are many situations where people go into hiding voluntarily for various reasons," Kamal remarked.

He asserted that the responsibility of law enforcement is to safeguard people's lives and property, not to harass them.

"Some quarters, who are now abroad, are conspiring against the government and spreading propaganda," the minister claimed.