Must work together for democracy and reforms

After years of denial by the authorities, chilling details about secret prisons are now emerging as victims of enforced disappearances begin to speak out after their release following the dramatic fall of Sheikh Hasina’s 16-year regime.

On the evening of December 4, 2017, around 6:45pm, M Maroof Zaman, former Bangladesh ambassador to Vietnam, was on his way from his Dhanmondi home to receive his daughter at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Usually, one sees the families of the victims of enforced disappearances demanding their loved ones be returned. But in a rare occurrence, the survivors came to the fore at a programme yesterday to narrate the ordeals they went through.

Bangladesh authorities should accept the UN's offer to support an independent commission of inquiry into enforced disappearances, Human Rights Watch said yesterday, on the eve of today's International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

No credible and independent investigation has so far been carried out into any of the alleged incidents of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh.

Russia believes that the US ambassador's visit to Shaheenbagh to meet with the family of a supporter of an opposition political party is an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Bangladesh.

US sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion “worked like a tonic”, rights activists said yesterday as the number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances dropped significantly in the last year.

A man, Nurul Afsar Hawladar, who was picked up from Uttara on September 22 allegedly by Rab, was shown arrested in Cox's Bazar yesterday (October 9, 2022).

Government decision to engage in expatriate diplomacy to tackle negative propaganda raises a lot of questions.

"I cannot use a phone for my safety, or ride my bicycle, which I have ridden for 50 years," said photojournalist Shahidul Alam at a lecture session in Dhaka today (September 3, 2022).

Four years ago, some plainclothesmen picked up Mohon Mia from his Mirpur house. He has never returned home again. His father Jamsher Ali, a trader, has long insisted he has proof that Rab-4 members took his elder son away without giving any reason.

UN human rights chief's visit to Dhaka revealed contrasting expectations on the part of the government and rights groups.

Government must allow impartial investigation into rights abuse allegations

The government has finally responded to the Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances for the first time in 26 years.

It was a sombre occasion at the Dhaka Reporters Unity premises on April 30.

Dear Reehan Rahman, My father, photojournalist and editor Shafiqul Islam Kajol, was added to the list of hundreds of Bangladeshi victims of enforced disappearance on March 10, 2020.

“We, the family members of the victims of enforced disappearance, have been leading a miserable life.

The government’s draft regulation for digital, social media and OTT platforms will be a threat to freedom of speech and people’s basic rights, experts said yesterday.

Human Rights Watch today urged the Bangladesh government to meaningfully respond to United Nations' concerns regarding grave allegations of torture, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killings in the country.