Anti-militancy campaign used as weapon for disappearances: Report

The anti-militancy campaign has been used as a weapon for enforced disappearances in Bangladesh, claimed a report released by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.

Former High Court Division Justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury, chief of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, made the remarks while unveiling the report at an event held in Dhaka's Gulshan area on Thursday.

The commission has been asked to locate and identify the people who were victims of the enforced disappearance from 1 January 2010 to 5 August 2024 by the members of law enforcement agencies.

The commission has claimed to have identified the people who were involved in the incidents of enforced disappearance, Moinul said.

He said the commission has already examined a total of 1,850 complaints and found evidence of 253 missing people.

“The evidence proves that the previous government carried out enforced disappearance on the pretext of an anti-militancy campaign, aiming to douse the extremism, centralise the state power, prolong the tenure and garner international support,” he said.

The people from different classes and professions, including meritorious students, political leaders and activists, journalists, doctors and engineers, were victims of the then government-sponsored enforced disappearance, he said.

The defeated Awami League-led administration has given the torture and secret abduction culture an institutional shape by establishing absolute control on the judiciary and politicising the country’s law enforcement agencies.

Furthermore, the then government handed over ordinary Bangladeshi citizens to Indian forces in an illegal way as part of its pre-planned and well-organised suppressive policy, alleged the chief of the inquiry commission.

He said that 81 percent of the allegations came from the people who have been able to return, while 19 percent came from those who have not returned after their abduction.

The commission has obtained complete information about those involved in the incident, he said, but declined to disclose further details in the interest of the ongoing investigation.