An inquiry commission set up by Bangladesh’s interim government says it has found evidence against ousted PM Sheikh Hasina and other top-ranking officials from the military and the police regarding alleged instances of enforced disappearance. In its report titled “Unfolding The Truth” submitted to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Saturday, the five-member Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances claims Hasina’s role as “the instructor”.
The press wing of the office of the Chief Adviser said, “The commission has found evidence of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s involvement as the instructor in the incidents of enforced disappearance.”
It added that the deposed PM’s defence adviser Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former director general of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre and sacked Major General Ziaul Ahsanand, as well as police officers, including Monirul Islam and Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid and several other senior officials were found to be involved in those incidents.
What does the commission’s chairman say?
The chairman of the commission, retired Supreme Court judge Mainul Islam Chowdhury told Yunus that while undertaking investigations, the commission found a “systematic design” that allowed incidents of enforced disappearances to go undetected.
Chowdhury also claimed that individuals, who were involved in enforced disappearance or extrajudicial killing, even lacked knowledge of victims.
Commission proposes abolishing Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)
Proposing the abolition of the police’s elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which draws men from the Army, Navy, Air Force, regular police and other law enforcement agencies, the commission accused the agencies of collaborating to pick up, torture, and keep victims in detention. It also recommended the scrapping or thoroughly amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, of 2009.
Rights activist and commission member Sajjad Hossain said they recorded 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances and, so far, have examined 758 of them. Of these, 200 people or 27 per cent of the victims never returned while those who returned were mostly shown on records as arrested.
Besides the chairman, the commission comprises Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli, rights activist Nur Khan, private BRAC University teacher Nabila Idris and rights activist Sajjad Hossain.