Marking one year of Bangladesh’s Commission on Enforced Disappearances, rights group Fortify Rights has called for full accountability for all disappearances that occurred under Sheikh Hasina’s government, describing them as a hallmark of her “brutal authoritarian rule.”
In a statement, the group’s director John Quinley stressed that victims’ families and survivors must receive compensation. Fortify Rights interviewed 10 survivors, relatives of victims, and a lawyer, some of whom described being held at the infamous secret detention center known as “Aynaghar” before being released after Hasina’s ouster.
Many of the disappeared were members of opposition parties, particularly BNP and Jamaat. The commission has already registered over 1,800 cases of enforced disappearances, with hundreds still missing.