Enforced disappearances in Bangladesh
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Enforced disappearances in Bangladesh are cases in which the Government of Bangladesh directly or indirectly kidnaps people and holds them incommunicado.[1] According to a Dhaka-based human rights group Odhikar, at least 402 people have become victim of enforced disappearance from 2009 to 2017 under the current Awami League administration.[2] These incidents along with extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh has been criticized by The United Nations and human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.[3][4] Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a special paramilitary unit in Bangladesh, is alleged to be behind most of these disappearances even though RAB claimed these allegations to be false.[5] The current Awami League government denies involvement in these forced disappearances even when victims later surface in custody.[2]
According to the report of a domestic human rights organization, 82 people were forcefully disappeared from January to September in 2014.[4] The activists and leaders of opposition parties constitute the majority of the victims. After the disappearances, at least 39 of the victims were found dead while others remained missing.[6][7] Before the controversial national election of 2014, at least 20 opposition men were picked up by the security forces.[8][9] At least 89 people have been victims of enforced disappearances in 2016.[10]
In 2016, the families of the victims of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh founded a platform Mayer Daak to press their demand to know the whereabouts of their loved ones who disappeared under mysterious situation.[11][12] On August 14, 2022, Netra News, which is blocked in Bangladesh, published a whistleblower report alleging that Bangladesh officials were holding and torturing victims of enforced disappearances at Aynaghar, a secret detention facility (house of mirrors).[13]