During the decade-and-a-half-rule of the ousted Awami League government, women, alongside men, were victims of enforced disappearances. In some instances, mothers and their children were taken and held in detention centres, and even pregnant women were not spared.
Male prisoners were subjected to mental torture by detaining their wives, preventing them from breastfeeding their babies.
These details of the horrific torture by state forces have been revealed in the interim report of the Commission of Inquiry into Disappearances.
Deputy Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser, Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, told Prothom Alo on Monday night that the unpublished section of the interim report titled “Unfolding the Truth”, submitted by the Commission of Inquiry to the Chief Adviser on 14 December, was released on Monday.
The Commission held a meeting with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on Sunday, presenting the progress of its investigation. Following the meeting, it was announced that the Chief Adviser would soon visit the Aynaghar (secret detention facilities).
The report highlighted at least four cases of women’s enforced disappearances, with one woman still missing. It noted that women were often targeted because of the accused male family members.
The report read, many women were abducted on baseless charges, often linked to alleged criminal activities by male relatives, particularly those accused of terrorism, without any credible evidence or legitimate grounds.
While the report acknowledged that enforced disappearances predominantly affected men, it emphasised that women who were abducted often remained silent about their ordeals, fearing social stigma. Despite this, some women have come forward to share their experiences of abduction, detention, and torture.
The commission documented instances where mothers and children were abducted together by security forces. One such case involved a pregnant woman detained for a month while caring for her two young children, aged three and one and a half years. The woman reported being beaten by a male security officer despite her pregnancy.
The report stated that such incidents were not isolated. In another case, a woman and her six-year-old child were abducted by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. The commission interviewed the child about the incident.
The Commission of Inquiry into Disappearances, led by Justice Mainul Islam Chowdhury, was formed by the interim government on 27 August last year to investigate cases of enforced disappearances between 6 January 2009 and 5 August 2024.
The interim report, submitted on 14 December 2024, implicated ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina - currently in exile in India - as having ordered several disappearances.
The report revealed that 1,676 complaints had been filed with the commission against various government agencies, including the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), Detective Branch (DB), CTTC, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and the police.
Of these, 758 complaints have been reviewed, revealing that 73 per cent of the victims have returned. However, 27 per cent—at least 204 people—remain missing.
One missing woman didn’t return yet
The report of the Commission of Inquiry reveals in one instance, a mother and her teenage daughter were abducted and detained overnight at the RAB-2 battalion headquarters. The following day, the girl was thrown out of a car onto the road.
According to family accounts, an imam discovered the girl and returned her to her family. However, her mother remains missing to this day.
Now an adult, the girl was taken by commission members to a RAB facility where missing persons were held. Upon seeing one of the rooms, she confirmed it was the same room where she had been detained.
The commission noted that such abductions are not isolated incidents. They have been systematically carried out for an extended period. Evidence has linked officials from the Chattogram Metropolitan Police and the Dhaka CTTC to the enforced disappearances between 2015 and 2023.
In another case, a victim of disappearance recounted how he, his wife, and their infant child were abducted and detained at a police station. To inflict mental torture, his wife was held there and prevented from breastfeeding their child.
The report further disclosed that families of the abducted women and children were not informed about their detention. Families only learned of their whereabouts when formal arrests were made.
The Commission emphasised that these revelations make it imperative to hold those responsible accountable and deliver justice to the victims and their families.
Victims did not have fundamental rights
The report highlights that Sheikh Hasina’s government systematically deprived victims of enforced disappearances of justice and their fundamental rights. Efforts to locate and rescue victims were met with repeated obstruction from authorities. Government agencies showed no interest in investigating allegations of disappearances or uncovering the truth.
When complaints about disappearances were filed, law enforcement agencies often refused to accept or investigate them, frequently citing “orders from above” as the reason for inaction. Victims’ families were dismissed with false explanations, such as claims that their loved ones had gone into hiding due to debt or personal reasons.
In cases where victims returned after disappearing, they were often subjected to further mistreatment. Many were presented in court on fabricated charges, commonly under the Anti-Terrorism Act. These individuals faced arrest, prolonged detention, and judicial processes based on false accusations.
The report underscores that victims of disappearances and their families have been denied meaningful legal remedies, with the judiciary failing to provide justice in these cases.
Still in fear, sense of insecurity
The commission’s report reveals that victims of enforced disappearances, who returned alive were subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies not only targeted the victims but also closely monitored and harassed their families in various ways.
The psychological impact of enforced disappearances has extended across generations. Families of the victims lived in constant fear and panic, with children being the most deeply affected.
The report highlights one such incident: a teenage girl, the daughter of a missing person, visited the commission’s office in her school uniform. Her father was taken away nearly a decade ago when she was just six years old. While she cannot remember the events of that time, she still carries the trauma. Her mother, clinging to hope, continues to iron and arrange her husband’s clothes. The girl told the commission that even after a change in government, her family does not feel safe.
The report also emphasises the severe financial hardships endured by the families of disappeared victims, who have struggled to survive for years without their loved ones.
Attempt to hide evidence of crimes
The report of the Commission of Inquiry into Disappearances said a “culture” of impunity had sprung up among the security forces during the regime of Sheikh Hasina.
Officials of both military and civil security agencies told the Commission that most of them never thought they would have to be accountable for their crimes. They did not even consider those as crimes. Such acts turned into normal things for them.
Following the fall of the AL government in the face of the student-people uprising on 5 August last year, the walls of joint interrogation cells (secret detention facilities) at the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) headquarters were newly painted to hide the information the prisoners had written there.
The director general of DGFI has been changed several days after the toppling of the AL government. Despite knowing that the Commission members will visit the secret detention facilities, the works to hide evidence there were undergoing even until the previous day of the visit. The Commission members found the paints on the walls wet and incomplete structures, which suggests attempts to hide the evidence hastily.
The then DGFI director general claimed that he was not directly involved with the incidents of enforced disappearances that took place during his time. But the attempts to destroy evidence of enforced disappearances at the secret detention facilities after 5 August highlight the impunity for such crimes. His acts were to protect the past criminals, which went against his interests and his professional integrity.
It is not that such attempts to destroy evidence of enforced disappearances took place at the DGFI headquarters only. Various security agencies systematically deformed (destroyed) evidence of their crimes committed for the last 15 years.
Prisoners faced double standard
The Commission’s report said the victims of enforced disappearances, who survived the ordeal, faced double standards from the security agency members at the detention facilities. Some were very cruel to them while a very small section were sympathetic to them.
A victim said when he was handed over to the DGFI official, a DB official with tears apologised to him and regretted he had to obey the order.
Another victim, who was a supporter of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, described his harrowing experience. He told the Commission that he was thrown in front of a vehicle with the intention to kill. At that time, a police official sought his pardon and said, “Please forgive me. I don’t have any other way.”
Though the vehicle veered off at the last minute and the victim survived due to a change in attitude of the official.
The Commission says, “We are not doing this harm or defaming anyone. We want to reform the whole system and build anew leaving the past experiences behind.”
The Commission further says, “We are making this call just to ensure public service and justice for the interests of the country and the security agencies. Through working on such structural injustice and crimes we want to lay a foundation of reliability and integrity, which will continue generation after generation.”