3.1.2. Involvement in human rights abuse

Sources reported that the former government allegedly used law enforcement as a tool for its own agenda,212 to undermine the political opposition,213 supress dissent, and spread fear.214 Human Rights Watch described enforced disappearances as a ‘hallmark’ of Hasina’s rule.215 Among those forcibly disappeared were leaders and supporters of opposition parties,216 alleged Islamist militants,217 and seemingly ordinary people.218 Victims were sometimes abducted by men in plainclothes claiming to represent law enforcement agencies219 and were commonly deprived of liberty repeated times, sometimes directly after being released from jail,220 finding themselves in a continuous cycle of arrests.221 State authorities put victims’ family members under surveillance,222 and threatened and harassed those seeking justice.223

Law enforcement engaged in enforced disappearances224 and extrajudicial killings.225 Multiple agencies were involved, including the ordinary police,226 but sources indicated that the RAB, DB, and intelligence agencies were leading actors.227 The inquiry commission on enforced disappearance, set up by the interim government, reported on a ‘systematic practice’ or enforced disappearance under the previous government. Security agencies used a ‘coordinated strategy’ to avoid detection, by attributing activities to each other and dividing responsibilities;228 while one agency would abduct a victim, another agency would detain them, and a third one would either release or kill them.229 According to the commission, this division led to situations where those involved ‘often lacked knowledge of who they were eliminating or the broader context of the operation’.230 The commission further stated that enforced disappearance was a practice taking place under a central command structure.231 Other sources have also reported on enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings committed by the RAB, as deliberate, planned232 and covered up.233 Whistle-blowers told Deutsche Welle (DW) and Netra News that operations with a political target were explicitly sanctioned from above, ‘at least from the Ministry of Home Affairs’.234 Officers involved in enforced disappearance have also told Human Rights Watch that senior members of the former government, including the prime minister, knew about incommunicado detentions, and that some enforced disappearances and killings were carried out on the direct order of Hasina.235

In some cases, victims were forcibly disappeared before being extrajudicially killed.236 Their bodies were commonly dumped in rivers.237 People have also been killed in what the authorities falsely described as ‘crossfire’ or ‘gunfights’.238 According to local human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), 1 926 persons were killed extrajudicially in such ‘crossfire’ and ‘gunfight’ incidents under the former government’s 15 years in power.239 As reported by Human Rights Watch, this practice became so institutionalised that members of parliament called for more ‘crossfire killings’.240 The commission of enquiry estimated that more than 3 500 individuals were subjected to enforced disappearance under the former government,241 while local and regional human rights organisations have recorded about 2 600 extrajudicial killings.242

In the aftermath of the former government’s fall, some victims of enforced disappearance resurfaced, disclosing that they had been kept in secret prisons (aynaghar) for years.243 The inquiry commission has identified 16 secret detention facilities,244 holding victims across the country,245 including the ‘notorious’ Joint Interrogation Cell and Taskforce for Interrogation in Uttara.246 However, 40–200 secret detention sites are believed to exist.247 Security forces have reportedly attempted to destroy evidence at the sites.248 According to the commission, security staff engaged in ‘torture rituals’, that were methodological and ‘profoundly brutal’.249 Other sources have also reported on torture at these sites.250

Torture and other forms of abuse were reportedly widespread practice within law enforcement in general; inter alia as a means to extract forced confessions,251 but also to humiliate victims, and instill fear.252 Victims of detention and subsequent torture included opposition members253 and other critics,254 alleged ‘militants’,255 and ordinary citizens.256 Law enforcement agencies reportedly enjoyed extensive impunity257 and harassed both victims and their relatives filing cases against law enforcement officers.258 As reported by Human Rights Watch in 2023, only one case of torture had led to a conviction under Bangladesh’s Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act since its adoption in 2013.259

For a timeline of the protests in July–August 2024, and information on violence of law enforcement, see Annex 1: Timeline of the protests in July–August 2024.

  • 212

    RFK Human Rights, Bangladesh: Government Must Stop Human Rights Violations and End Impunity, 9 December 2022, url; AHRC and OMCT, Bangladesh: End torture and impunity, 24 June 2023, url

  • 213

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 50; AHRC and OMCT, Bangladesh: End torture and impunity, 24 June 2023, url; RFK Human Rights, Bangladesh: Government Must Stop Human Rights Violations and End Impunity, 9 December 2022, url

  • 214

    ADPAN et al., Bangladesh, Government must cease enforced disappearances, stop harassment of the victims’ families and hold perpetrators accountable, 29 August 2023, url; Bertelsmann Stiftung, Bangladesh Country Report 2024, 19 March 2024, url

  • 215

    HRW, Decade of Disappearances, n.d., url

  • 216

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 46; AP, Thousands of opposition activists languish in prison as Bangladesh gears up for national election, 6 January 2024, url

  • 217

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 43; Fidh, Bangladesh: Government must cease enforced disappearances, stop harassment of the victims’ families and hold perpetrators accountable, 30 August 2023, url

  • 218

    Netra News, Secret prisoners of Dhaka, 14 August 2022, url

  • 219

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 46; Riaz, A., Where are they?, Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh, CGS, March 2022, url, p. 10

  • 220

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 43

  • 221

    Guardian (The), Full prisons and false charges: Bangladesh opposition faces pre-election crackdown, 10 November 2023, url; Himal, The uses and abuses of Bangladesh’s law-enforcement and prison systems, 29 January 2024, url

  • 222

    AHRC, Bangladesh: Government Must Bear Responsibilities if Victims of Enforced Disappearances are Harmed,
    8 September 2022, url; Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 44

  • 223

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 44; HRW, Bangladesh: Open Forced Disappearances Inquiry, 29 August 2023, url; Riaz, A., Where are they?, Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh, CGS, March 2022, url, p. 10

  • 224

    AI, Human Rights Charter – Bangladesh, 2024, url, p. 3; Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 44

  • 225

    Riaz, A., Executions at Will?, March 2022, CGS, url, pp. 5, 15; Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, pp. 28–29

  • 226

    Prothom Alo, RAB’s 'secret prison' more terrifying than DGFI: Commission, 5 November 2024, url

  • 227

    Fidh, Enforced disappearances in Bangladesh: Government must hold perpetrators accountable, ensure justice and reparation for victims, survivors, and their families, 29 August 2024, url; Dhaka Tribune, Interim report of inquiry on enforced disappearance reveals alarming patterns, 15 December 2024, url; Benar News, 'Lips sewn without anesthetic,’ other shockers from Bangladesh report on Hasina-linked disappearances, 19 December 2024, url

  • 228

    Dhaka Tribune, Interim report of inquiry on enforced disappearance reveals alarming patterns, 15 December 2024, url; Benar News, 'Lips sewn without anesthetic,’ other shockers from Bangladesh report on Hasina-linked disappearances, 19 December 2024, url

  • 229

    Dhaka Tribune, Interim report of inquiry on enforced disappearance reveals alarming patterns, 15 December 2024, url; Benar News, 'Lips sewn without anesthetic,’ other shockers from Bangladesh report on Hasina-linked disappearances, 19 December 2024, url

  • 230

    Daily Star (The), Enforced disappearances: State-backed system behind it all, 16 December 2024, url

  • 231

    Daily Star (The), Hasina’s regime and the systematic use of enforced disappearance, 10 March 2025, url; Dhaka Tribune, Interim report of inquiry on enforced disappearance reveals alarming patterns, 15 December 2024, url

  • 232

    DW, 'Death squad': Inside Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion, 4 March 2023, url; Riaz, A., Executions at Will? Extrajudicial Killings by State Actors in Bangladesh, CGS, March 2022, url, p. 7

  • 233

    DW, 'Death squad': Inside Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion, 4 March 2023, url; Radio Sweden, Exclusive: Officer Exposes Brutal Killings by Bangladeshi Elite Police Unit RAB, 4 April 2017, url

  • 234

    DW, 'Death squad': Inside Bangladesh's Rapid Action Battalion, 4 March 2023, url

  • 235

    HRW, After the Monsoon Revolution, 27 January 2025, url

  • 236

    HRW, After the Monsoon Revolution, 27 January 2025, url

  • 237

    HRW, After the Monsoon Revolution, 27 January 2025, url; Daily Star (The), Enforced disappearances: State-backed system behind it all, 16 December 2024, url

  • 238

    HRW, After the Monsoon Revolution, 27 January 2025, url; AI, Bangladesh: Alleged extrajudicial killings in the guise of a ‘war on drugs’, 4 November 2019, url; Prothom Alo, At least 1,926 killed extrajudicially in 15 years of AL govt, 4 November 2024, url

  • 239

    Prothom Alo, At least 1,926 killed extrajudicially in 15 years of AL govt, 4 November 2024, url

  • 240

    HRW, After the Monsoon Revolution, 27 January 2025, url

  • 241

    Benar News, 'Lips sewn without anesthetic,’ other shockers from Bangladesh report on Hasina-linked disappearances, 19 December 2024, url; AA, Early evidence suggests Bangladeshi ex-premier involved in forced disappearances, finds commission, 14 December 2024, url

  • 242

    France, OFPRA, Rapport de mission en République populaire du Bangladesh, 22 April 2024, url, p. 27; VOA, No Extrajudicial Killings, Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh, Bachelet Is Told, 17 August 2022, url

  • 243

    New York Times (The), Alone in the Dark: The Nightmare of Bangladesh’s Secret Underground Prison, 17 October 2024, url; HRW, After the Monsoon Revolution, 27 January 2025, url

  • 244

    Daily Star (The), Enforced disappearances: Commission finds 16 secret detention centres, 5 June 2025, url

  • 245

    Daily Star (The), Hasina’s regime and the systematic use of enforced disappearance, 10 March 2025, url

  • 246

    Netra News, No access: Survivors and journalists barred from visiting Aynaghar and TFI, 5 February 2025, url

  • 247

    Le Monde, Inside the secret prisons of former Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina, 30 December 2024, url

  • 248

    Daily Star (The), Enforced disappearances: Inquiry commission finds 8 detention centres, 6 November 2024, url; BBC News, His memories uncovered a secret jail - right next to an international airport, 15 April 2025, url; TIB, ‘New Bangladesh’, Tracking the First 100 Days after the Fall of the Authoritarian Regime, 18 November 2024, url, p. 9

  • 249

    Benar News, 'Lips sewn without anesthetic,’ other shockers from Bangladesh report on Hasina-linked disappearances, 19 December 2024, url

  • 250

    BBC News, His memories uncovered a secret jail - right next to an international airport, 15 April 2025, url; Netra News, Secret prisoners of Dhaka, 14 August 2022, url

  • 251

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 50; AHRC and OMCT, Bangladesh: End torture and impunity, 24 June 2023, url

  • 252

    AHRC and OMCT, Bangladesh: End torture and impunity, 24 June 2023, url

  • 253

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, p. 4, para. 54; VOA, Six Bangladesh Opposition Activists Die in Custody, 19 December 2023, url

  • 254

    UN Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review – Bangladesh, Compilation of UN information, 30 August 2023, url, para. 30

  • 255

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 50; USA, USDOS, 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bangladesh, 20 March 2023, url, section 1. c

  • 256

    AHRC and OMCT, Bangladesh: End torture and impunity, 24 June 2023, url; Daily Star (The), Ordinary citizens’ vulnerability to custodial torture, 23 January 2023, url

  • 257

    Odhikar, Bangladesh, Annual Human Rights Report 2023, 4 January 2024, url, para. 50; AHRC and OMCT, Bangladesh: End torture and impunity, 24 June 2023, url

  • 258

    AHRC and OMCT, Bangladesh: End torture and impunity, 24 June 2023, url; New Age, Justice must be ensured for custodial torture victims, 10 February 2023, url

  • 259

    HRW, Allegations of Bangladesh Police Torture, Illegal Detentions, 3 February 2023, url