A commission set up by Bangladesh’s interim government to investigate enforced disappearances said on Saturday that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was found to be involved in such cases during her 16-year regime.
On August 27, the interim government in Dhaka formed a five-member Enforced Disappearance Commission of Inquiry, headed by retired judge Mainul Islam Chowdhury, to investigate enforced disappearances by security forces during Hasina’s tenure.
The commission was asked to trace and identify missing persons and investigate the circumstances under which they were forced to disappear by various intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
On Saturday, the commission submitted a report on the matter to Muhammad Yunus, the head of the interim government. The report recommended the disbandment of the anti-terrorist outfit Rapid Action Battalion, which has been the accused of human rights.
Hasina has in the past consistently denied that her Awami League government was involved in enforced disappearances.
The commission said on Saturday it registered 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances, adding that 758 of those cases had been investigated. The number of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh may have crossed 3,500, it added.
It argued that India’s involvement in such cases was a matter of “public record”.
In one statement on the report, Chowdhury said the commission had “found the prima facie involvement of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and some senior officials of the security forces and her government, including her defense adviser, Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, in the enforced disappearances”, the Hindustan Times reported.
The statement also said the commission had found a “systematic design” to ensure that enforced disappearances remained undetected. Chowdhury added that the people who carry out such enforced disappearances or extrajudicial killings lacked knowledge of the victims, according to the paper.
The commission will present another interim report in March, he said, adding that it will take at least a year to investigate all the complaints it has received.
Yunus on Saturday told the commission that it is “doing a really, really important job”, and pledged his government’s support in any way necessary, The Hindu reported.
Yunus took over as chief adviser to the interim government in Dhaka on 8 August following Hasina departed and landed in India on August 5.
The Awami League leader fled the country after the student-led protests against a controversial quota system for government jobs, which started in July, snowballed into a wider agitation against her government.
