28 people in Bangladesh charged with disappearance, secret detention and torture: HRW

The filing of charges in court against 28 people in Bangladesh for disappearance, secret detention and torture is a significant step towards justice, the New York-based international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called it an important step towards justice.

In a report released on Thursday, the organization said, “This is a first step towards justice for the families of the victims.”

The report came shortly after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and several former and current army officers were issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Bangladesh.

Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at HRW, said in her comments, “When Human Rights Watch published a report on secret detentions and disappearances in Bangladesh in 2017, the then home minister dismissed it as ‘propaganda’. He claimed that the missing persons were either criminals, fraudsters or defaulters.”

The organization said that during the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina’s government from 2009 to 2024, numerous human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, torture, and suppression of freedom of expression occurred.

After the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in a mass uprising by students and the public in August last year, she and several top officials including Asaduzzaman Khan fled the country.

Later, the interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus formed the ‘Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances’ after taking office.

The commission has received about 1,850 complaints so far. Initial investigations have shown that more than 300 victims are believed to have been killed in the custody of law enforcement.

The commission recently released a documentary, ‘Unfolding the Truth’, which reveals horrific images of torture and the victims’ accounts.

On October 9, a charge sheet was announced against 28 people involved in the disappearance and torture incidents. Several of these accused have been previously documented in Human Rights Watch reports.

One of them is Mir Ahmad bin Qasim (Arman)—who was disappeared in 2016 and held in secret military intelligence custody for eight years.

Before his disappearance, he wrote a letter expressing his concerns for his safety. Arman was released after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, is currently healthy, and has also said that he has written a book about his experiences.

In the final part of the report, Human Rights Watch called on the Bangladeshi government to ensure fair trials and to follow international human rights standards in the use of the death penalty.

The organization believes that the filing of this complaint will set a historic precedent in Bangladesh’s judicial system, where for the first time state-level accountability for serious human rights violations such as enforced disappearances and torture has begun.