An interim government has embarked upon much-needed institutional change and accountability in Bangladesh, but recent cases of arbitrary arrests and reprisal violence underscore the need for long-term systemic reforms, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 50-page report, "After the Monsoon Revolution: A Roadmap to Lasting Security Sector Reform in Bangladesh," offers recommendations for systemic reform after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's autocratic administration was ousted in August 2024. The report urges the interim government to establish legal detention practices and repeal laws used to target critics. Reforms should be centered on separation of powers and ensuring political neutrality across institutions, including the civil service, police, military, and the judiciary. The government should seek technical assistance, monitoring, and reporting by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN rights experts to ensure lasting reforms.
"Nearly 1,000 Bangladeshis lost their lives fighting for democracy, ushering in a landmark opportunity to build a rights-respecting future in Bangladesh," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "This hard-won progress could all be lost if the interim government does not create swift and structural reforms that can withstand any repression by future governments."
The recommendations are based on over 20 years of Human Rights Watch research and documentation in Bangladesh as well as recent interviews with human rights activists, members of the interim government, and current and former law enforcement and military officials.
Over the last 15 years, Hasina's Awami League government deployed security forces to repress critics and opposition members through enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, surveillance, and torture. As Hasina consolidated power, her government also weakened the institutions that would keep its powers in check and maintain oversight and accountability over security forces, including the judiciary and the national human rights commission. One policeman told Human Rights Watch that loyalty to the Awami League was "often prioritized over merit for lucrative postings," leading police to "become increasingly biased, acting more like party cadres over the years."
Muhammad Yunus, whom student activists appointed as head of the interim government days after Hasina's departure, has made important commitments to implementing reforms before holding free and fair elections. His government has dropped many politically motivated cases filed by the previous administration, including against Yunus himself, and demanded an end to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. In February, a commission headed by Yunus is set to begin implementing reforms based on recommendations made by six commissions established to recommend reforms to the electoral system, justice system, public administration, the police, the anti-corruption office, and the constitution.
The interim government should introduce a UN Human Rights Council resolution at the council's March 2025 session to ensure lasting reforms beyond the interim government's limited tenure, Human Rights Watch said. Donor governments should invest in police training and other security sector reform in Bangladesh, but not without these core structural reforms.
Human Rights Watch has found that a disturbing pattern of security force abuses has reemerged after Hasina's ouster, this time targeting former Awami League supporters, including journalists. The police are again arbitrarily detaining people and filing mass criminal complaints against unnamed people, which allows the police to intimidate and threaten virtually anyone with arrest.
In the first two months since the interim government took office, over 1,000 police cases were filed against tens of thousands of people, mainly Awami League members, accusing them of murder, corruption, or other crimes. Over 400 Awami League ministers and leaders are facing investigations.
Those with command responsibility for abuses under the previous government should be held to account. However, mass complaints without adequate evidence only undermine justice, Human Rights Watch said. Family members of two people who died in the uprising against Sheikh Hasina told Human Rights Watch that local political leaders opposed to the Awami League pressured them to sign the police reports, though they were not sure against whom, if they wanted the state to recognize their relative's murder, including with financial compensation and other reparations.
The interim government should urgently prohibit filing cases against unnamed accused and mass arrest warrants, and revise laws that allow for vague and overly broad charges to target critics, Human Rights Watch said. Courts should act speedily to ensure that anyone detained is safely and swiftly produced before a judge. All detention centers should be made public and open to independent inspection.
There are repeated allegations of violent attacks against Hindus and other minorities and that the police have failed to ensure protection. A recent ordinance to replace the abusive Cyber Security Act used to crush freedom of speech, unfortunately replicates many of the same harmful provisions.
Yunus has insisted on his administration's respect for free speech. However, authorities under the interim government have clamped down on journalists who were perceived to have been sympathetic to the former government. As of November, authorities had filed murder charges against at least 140 journalists in relation to their reporting on the Monsoon Revolution and scrapped more than 150 press accreditations required to attend official events. Police also filed sedition charges against 19 people for desecrating the national flag.
The national commission investigating enforced disappearance issued its first report on December 14, estimating that over 3,500 enforced disappearances had been carried out under the Sheikh Hasina government. The report finds that Hasina, as well as top officials Major General Tarique Ahmed Siddique and Major General Ziaul Ahsan, and senior police officers, were involved in overseeing the disappearances. Officers involved in enforced disappearances also told Human Rights Watch that Sheikh Hasina and senior members of her government had knowledge of incommunicado detentions.
Shortly after Hasina fled the country, three men were released from secret detention centers. In all three cases, authorities had for years denied having them in custody. Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem, a lawyer, described the facility where he was held as having been "meticulously designed to give the detainees a worse than death experience." The report issued by the national disappearances inquiry found that torture "was not only systematic but also institutionalized."
The government should act on the recommendation of the national commission of inquiry to disband the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a counterterrorism unit of seconded police and military personnel that has been responsible for numerous extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances. In response to the report's findings, the RAB chief AKM Shahidur Rahman acknowledged the unit's secret detention centers and stated that RAB would accept the decision if the interim government sought to disband the unit.
In an important step, the interim government has acceded to the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances. It should ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and urgently invite the subcommittee on Prevention to visit Bangladesh and make recommendations.
Bangladesh has a long history of divisive politics, which can seep into law enforcement. The interim government should establish independent civilian oversight over law enforcement, including through the national human rights commission, with authority to carry out unannounced inspections of all places of detention. It should also enforce international standards on use of force, making clear that any member of the security forces breaching them will be held accountable.
Member countries should work with the interim government to put in place Human Rights Council mandated monitoring of Bangladesh's human rights situation by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and establish regular reporting back to the council.
"Bangladesh's interim government has the monumental task of undoing 15 years of increasingly entrenched autocracy," Pearson said. "The interim government should enlist UN support to cement structural reforms so that the abuses of the past do not become a blueprint for Bangladesh's future."
Selected Accounts
When violence broke out on July 15, security forces responded with excessive force, firing live ammunition indiscriminately at unarmed students, and in some cases shooting people in the back as they fled. A police officer later told Human Rights Watch, "I witnessed officers firing at vital organs…. In many cases, I witnessed live ammunition being fired even when officers' lives were not in danger."
Amir Hussain, 18, said he was caught in a crowd as police attacked protesters on July 19. Videos of him attempting to save his life circulated widely on social media. He said:
As the police were running after me, I tried to escape by climbing an under-construction building. When I reached the fourth floor, the police ordered me to jump down, but I didn't because I knew I would die if I did. I tried to hang on the rod on the fourth floor of the building. One officer fired six rounds at me from third floor as I was hanging, and all of them hit my leg. Then they left. Later, when it was causing me severe pain, I jumped to the third floor which caused my leg to break further. I still don't know why they chased and shot me.
Iman Hossain Tayem, a college student and the son of a police officer, was with two friends at a teashop on July 20 when security forces started shooting. When one of them was hit by a rubber bullet, they decided to hide inside, rolling down the shutters. One of the friends, Mohammad Rahat Husain, said that 10-15 policemen entered the shop:
We were completely shocked when the police lifted the shutters, and 10-15 officers pointed their guns at us. They started physically assaulting us with the butts of their guns. Some officers were saying they should shoot us, while others suggested shooting us in the legs. As Tayem and I stood together, the police, using abusive language, told us to run away.
Tayem had already taken two or three steps ahead, thinking I would follow, but I didn't move. As he ran, he was shot from behind by two bullets…. I rushed to him, holding him as he was about to collapse. I tried to drag him away, but the police kept firing, and a rubber bullet hit my leg.
Attacks on bystanders by security forces appeared to be part of a broader pattern. One police officer later told Human Rights Watch, "The police also shot at onlookers observing the scene from their homes, intending to create fear and send a message that people should not watch what was happening around them." Police officers described receiving both explicit and implicit orders throughout the protests to use lethal force. One officer explained:
Senior officers ordered us to be strict and not to spare any criminals spreading anarchy. They didn't explicitly use the word "fire," but their instructions were clear: Apply the highest force, do whatever you think is necessary to control the situation, take a hardline approach.
Accounts from Survivors of Enforced Disappearance
Shortly after Hasina fled the country, three victims of enforced disappearances - Michael Chakma, Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem (Armaan), and Abdullahil Amaan Azmi - were released. In all three cases, authorities had for years denied having them in custody. All of them told journalists that they were held in solitary confinement but could hear others who were held in the same detention centers.
Humam Quader Chowdhury was detained in August 2016, around the same time as Azmi and Armaan. All three are sons of opposition leaders who had been tried and convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal, as collaborators of the Pakistan military during Bangladesh's war for independence. Humam Chowdhury was released in March 2017 on the condition that he keep quiet about his unlawful detention. He only agreed to meet Human Rights Watch after the fall of the Hasina government. "I know that there were other cells in that building, and I know that those cells were full. There were other people there," he said. Comparing the length of his disappearance to that of Azmi and Armaan, he said "Seven months, I thought was a lifetime. Eight years. I cannot fathom how anybody would survive that."
Armaan was picked up from his home in the presence of his wife, sister, and children on August 9, 2016, by seven or eight officers. As a lawyer, he demanded a warrant for his arrest, but the officers refused and dragged him out of the house, put him in a van, and blindfolded him. When he protested, he said, an officer responded, "Please don't make us be brutal with you."
He was kept blindfolded and handcuffed 24/7, except to use the washroom or eat. He said that he could sometimes hear other detainees being tortured in the cells nearby. "I would hear screams and sounds of interrogation. Grown men screaming like little children. It's really difficult to take," he said. At one point he said he asked the officers detaining him to "either kill me or release me. Do something. I just can't take this anymore." He said they told him it was out of their hands: "'They just give us a name, location, intelligence on the target to pick them, bring them here, and keep them. The orders come in; we follow. We don't choose or we don't have the jurisdiction to decide. It comes from the highest place.' That's what they told me," he said.
Michael Chakma, an Indigenous rights activist, disappeared on April 9, 2019. He said he was picked up at a tea stall by four or five men who said they were from law enforcement. They pulled him into a microbus, blindfolded him, drove him to a detention site, and placed him in a cell. They interrogated him about a protest by Indigenous activists from the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
During his detention, especially in the early weeks, Chakma said he was tortured. He said that while he was blindfolded, the officers would tie him to a chair with his hands behind his back, making him believe he was being held in an electric chair and threatening to electrocute and kill him if he did not provide them with information. One officer told him, "We can keep you here for 30 years and nobody will ever find you."
