US-based rights body calls out Yunus for charging Awami League leaders with terrorism

New York: Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based advocacy group, has severely criticised the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government of Bangladesh for increasingly using the recently amended counterterrorism law to arrest “alleged” supporters of the former Awami League government.

HRW urged the United Nations human rights team in Bangladesh to immediately seek the release of those arbitrarily detained and encourage the authorities to uphold rights and prosecute all those who use unlawful political violence.

The Anti-Terrorism Act was enacted in 2009 under the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina.

Citing officials, HRW stated that the 2025 amendments under the Yunus-led interim government were aimed at holding Awami League party members accountable for their “abuses while in power”, and were introduced following demands from political parties and student organisations.

“The Bangladeshi government should stop abusing the anti-terrorism law, which is just becoming political repression by another name. The interim government should instead focus on creating conditions for safe and participatory elections,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at HRW

The rights body asserted that suppressing the right to peaceful speech and association violates international standards.

It added that thousands have been arrested under the interim government, many on dubious murder allegations, while scores are being held under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

“The Bangladesh Editors’ Council warned that the amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act would ‘curtail people’s freedom of expression and limit the wide scope of freedom of the mass media, which is worrying, and it would threaten freedom of the press’. Yunus, however, has denied any restrictions on freedom of expression,” the rights body noted.

Slamming the Yunus regime, the HRW stated that the interim government has also been unable to contain radical Islamist interest groups that have engaged in violence to press their demands, ranging from targeting Awami League supporters to opposing women’s rights.

Furthermore, citing the reports of Dhaka-based human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra (AsK), the rights body said that at least 152 people have been killed in mob attacks since January.

“Right now, our choices are to be either jailed as terrorists or to face a mob. I am not saying the guilty should not be punished, but it has to be a fair justice system, which the Yunus government has failed to deliver,” HRW quoted a political activist as saying.

IANS