Dhaka. An inquiry commission set up by Bangladesh’s interim government has said it has found evidence of involvement of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and top military and police officials of her regime in alleged disappearances. This five-member commission submitted its interim report titled “Revealing the Truth” to Chief Advisor Professor Mohammad Yunus on Saturday, after which this statement was issued. The commission set up to investigate incidents of missing persons has estimated that the number of such cases is more than 3,500.
The press wing of the Office of the Chief Adviser (CA) said in a statement on Saturday night, “The Commission has found evidence that people were disappeared on the instructions of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.” Prime Minister’s Defense Advisor Major General (retd) Tariq Ahmed Siddiqui, former Director General of National Telecom Surveillance Center and dismissed Major General Ziaul Ahsan, senior police officers Monirul Islam and Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid and many others. Senior officers were also found involved in these incidents. All these former army and police officers are absconding. They are believed to have fled the country after the student-led rebellion ousted Hasina’s Awami League government from power on August 5.
According to the statement, the commission’s chairman and retired Supreme Court judge Mainul Islam Choudhary told Yunus that during the investigation he came across a “systematic approach” due to which these incidents could not be detected. “Those carrying out disappearances or extrajudicial killings were also not aware of the victims,” Choudhary said. The report said the police’s elite anti-crime ‘Rapid Action Battalion’ (RAB) and other law enforcement agencies The enforcement agencies collaborated with each other to carry out incidents of forced transportation, torture and detention of people. RAB consists of people from Army, Navy, Air Force and Police.
The Commission also proposed abolishing the RAB along with repealing or comprehensively amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009. Human rights activist and commission member Sajjad Hussain said they have filed 1,676 complaints of missing people due to such incidents and have investigated 758 of them so far. Of these, 200 people or 27 percent of the victims never returned and of those who returned, most of them are shown in the records as arrested persons. Apart from the chairman, the commission also includes Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli, human rights activist Noor Khan, private BRAC University teacher Nabila Idris and human rights activist Sajjad Hussain.
Earlier, the commission announced at a press conference that it had found eight secret detention centers in Dhaka and its outskirts. The commission chairman told Yunus on Saturday that he would submit another interim report in March and that it would take at least another year to complete the investigation into all the allegations. “You are really doing very important work,” Yunus said. We are ready to provide you all assistance.” Interviews of victims who were allegedly disappeared were broadcast on TV channels and social media. These victims include opposition activists and former military officers who actively opposed Hasina’s rule. Yunus, while receiving the report yesterday, said he would visit some joint interrogation rooms and secret detention centers as he wanted to hear directly from the victims about their suffering. The report calls for a new law to criminalize enforced disappearances.