A commission formed 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 the five-member Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance, led by retired justice 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 disbanding of anti-terror outfit Rapid Action Battalion, which has been accused of human rights abuse.
Hasina has in the past consistently denied that her Awami League government was involved in enforced disappearances.
The commission said on Saturday that it recorded 1,676 complaints about enforced disappearances, adding that 758 of these cases had been scrutinised. The number of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh may have crossed 3,500, it added.
It claimed that India’s involvement in such cases was a matter of “public record”.
In a statement on the report, Chowdhury said that the commission had “found the prima facie involvement of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and some high-ranking officials of security forces and her government, including her defence adviser, Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, in the enforced disappearances”, the Hindustan Times reported.
The statement also said that the commission had found a “systematic design” to ensure that enforced disappearances remained undetected. Chowdhury added that the persons carrying out such enforced disappearances or extrajudicial killings lacked knowledge of the victims, according to the newspaper.
The commission will submit another interim report in March, he said, adding that it will need at least a year to look into all the complaints it received.
Yunus on Saturday told the commission that it was “doing a really very important job”, and promised that his government would support in every way required, The Hindu reported.
Yunus took over as the chief advisor to the interim government in Dhaka on August 8 after Hasina resigned and landed in India on August 5.
The Awami League leader fled the country after the student-led protests against a controversial quota scheme for government jobs, which started in July, snowballed into a broader agitation against her government.
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