Bangladesh Probe Finds Hundreds Likely Killed In Enforced Disappearances

By Staff, Agencies

Bangladesh’s post-uprising reckoning with past abuses has intensified after a government-appointed commission concluded that hundreds of people who disappeared under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina were likely killed, pointing to systematic state violence over several years.

The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, formed after Hasina was removed from power during the August 2024 mass uprising, examined 1,569 verified cases of abduction and secret detention.

At least 287 victims are now presumed dead, according to the commission’s final report submitted to the government on Sunday.

Investigators said evidence indicates many victims were executed and their bodies deliberately concealed.

Some were reportedly dumped in rivers, including Dhaka’s Buriganga, while others may lie in unmarked or mass graves across multiple regions.

“We have identified a number of unmarked graves in several places where the bodies were presumably buried,” commission member Nur Khan Liton said.

Citing the scale of the crimes, the commission urged authorities to seek international forensic assistance to identify victims and preserve evidence, including DNA samples from families.

The report concluded that enforced disappearances were systematic and carried out by security forces under the direction of Hasina and senior officials.

Many victims were linked to opposition groups, particularly Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which faced sustained repression during her rule.