Rights activists in Bangladesh alarmed over rising extra judicial killings under Yunus govt

Dhaka: Several rights activists in Bangladesh have raised an alarm against rising extrajudicial killings and other custodial deaths of suspects that have occurred since Muhammad Yunus-led Interim Government came to power in the country in August 2024.

According to Dhaka-based human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra (AsK), at least 19 people have been killed by law enforcement and security agencies since August 8, 2024, after Yunus took office.

“Those people either got killed in so-called gunfights or exchange of fire, or they were tortured while being in custody and later brought dead to hospitals,” AsK’s senior coordinator Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir told media outlet Benar News.

Another human rights activist, Nur Khan Liton, a member of the Yunus Government’s Commission for Enforced Disappearances, noted that instead of curbing extrajudicial killings, the number has gone up since August 2024. He told Benar News, “The government is not taking any visible measures to minimise these extra-judicial killings. We have been told the same old narratives in every custodial death, crossfire or gunfight case. It’s alarming and disappointing at the same time.”

In December 2024, the human rights organisation highlighted in its report instances of mob justice and lawlessness in the name of justice that remain a major cause for concern during the interim government’s current rule.

Referring to the incidents of mob justice, the report mentioned the incident of a youth being beaten to death at Dhaka University that sparked harsh criticism across the country. Apart from that, leaders and activists of political parties are being subjected to mob justice too.

The former leader of the Rajshahi University unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the Student wing of Awami League, Abdullah Al Masud, was beaten to death on September 7, 2024. He was assaulted in the Binodpur market near the university campus.

According to ASK, there are reports of a total of 147 incidents of vandalising houses, temples, and business establishments of the Hindu community across the country. Some 408 households were vandalised in these incidents, including 36 cases of arson. Besides, there have been reports of 113 incidents of vandalising business establishments owned by the minority community, 32 incidents of attack on temples and mosques of the Ahmadiyya sect, and 92 incidents of vandalising idols in 92 temples, reports Bangladesh’s leading Bengali newspaper, Prothom Alo.

Bangladesh has been grappling with violence and protests across the nation after the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus came to power. In recent months, according to various local media reports, Bangladesh has witnessed a surge in severe protest movements against the government amidst massive deterioration of the law and order situation in the country.

IANS