Bangladesh government failed to prosecute security forces for serious abuses including killings, disappearances, and arbitrary arrests, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2015 released today. “Government forces committed serious abuses both leading up to and after the January 2014 general election, while opposition parties engaged in violent and indiscriminate attacks to impose economic blockades and to enforce a boycott of the January polls,” it said. In spite of well-documented evidence, the government took no steps to ensure accountability for a...

Enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions are on the rise amidst the political crisis in Bangladesh. At least nine people including two women have been disappeared, and seven men extrajudicially murdered between 5 January and 27 January 2015. Personnel from the Detective Branch (DB) of Police, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and the Joint Forces (which is comprised of Police, RAB, and the Border Guards Bangladesh officers) detained these sixteen citizens, resulting in their disappearance and extrajudicial execution.