Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh
These practices began during the administration of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and continued through subsequent regimes, including those of General Ershad and the government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
[33] On 17 April 2012, Ilias Ali, was a former Member of Parliament and prominent leader of the main opposition party BNP, went missing after last being seen in Banani, Dhaka at midnight with his driver.
[40][39] Later, the United Nations expressed concern over the abductions of three men, and urged the Sheikh Hasina's government to check the increasing number of cases of forced disappearances in the country.
[42][43] A prosecution witness who was abducted allegedly by plainclothed police on 5 November 2012 from the gate of Supreme Court after he had decided to testify in favour of an accused war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee, who at the time was being tried before the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh.
[44] Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem was a victim of enforced disappearance and was believed to have been abducted by security forces of the government of Bangladesh.
He is the son of late Mir Quasem Ali, a prominent leader of the opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and was a member of his father's legal defence team before his abduction.
RAB-11 is accused of burning 2 cars and killing Iqbal Mahmud Jewel in front of BNP leader Sahab Uddin Sabu in Lakshmipur on 23 December 2013.
They were strangled, blindfolded and thrown into the river, four days after they were kidnapped few kilometres from Narayanganj district court by RAB men who are accused to do it as contract killing.
[20][93][94] In this case, on 16 January 2016 ex-AL men, ex-RAB officials among 26 were handed death penalty[95] as the charges of abduction, murder, concealing the bodies, conspiracy and destroying evidences were proved beyond any doubt.
"[98] Law Minister Anisul Huq alleged that the disappearance claims were part of a plot by opposition parties to discredit the government.
[99] Sajeeb Wazed, son of Sheikh Hasina, wrote in an article that the Bangladesh police had not uncovered any evidence suggestive of the government's involvement behind any reported disappearance.
The main opposition party BNP has held the government responsible for conducting these forced disappearances,[101][102] and demanded an UN-sponsored investigation into such cases.
[104][105] During her visit to Bangladesh in 2012, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern over the disappearance of Ilyas Ali and Aminul Islam.
[30][106][107] In July 2017, Human Rights Watch published an 82-page report accusing the Bangladesh government of secret detention, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings of political opposition members.
The report also contained gruesome accounts of forcefully picking up and subsequent disappearances of political opposition members at the hands of law enforcement authorities.
