Amnesty International has alleged that the police and other security forces in Bangladesh committed torture with impunity.
In its annual report 2014-15, covering 160 countries and released on Tuesday, the London-based rights organisation mentioned that journalists and human rights defendants continued to be attacked and harassed.
The report contained 80 cases of forced disappearances between 2012 and 2014 and killing of more than 100 people in election-related violence in 2013-14 and expressed concern at the trends.
However, the report could not include the most recent cases, especially alleged extra-judicial killing of 47 people since beginning of the non-stop blockade on 6 January.
Of over 100 deaths in 2013-14 election violence including police firing on demonstrators, Amnesty International pointed out that none of these deaths were believed to have been investigated.
The AI report welcomed the investigation into abduction and killing of seven people in Narayanganj in April 2014, as a move towards holding law enforcement officials accountable for alleged human rights violation.
But it said, “Concerns continued that the government might drop the cases if public pressure to bring them to justice lessened.”
The AI report further regretted that there were no clear indications of a thorough investigation into other incidents.
Amnesty International also expressed concern at the violation of rights of women, especially violence against them, and also at the working conditions for factory workers.
On the estimated forced disappearance of over 80 people, the report suggested that only 20 cases were documented. Nine people were subsequently found dead, six had returned to their families after periods of captivity lasting from weeks to months with no trace of whereabouts until their release and there was no news about the circumstances of the other five, the report said.
The report quoted more than a dozen media workers, including journalists, saying that they had been threatened by security agencies for criticising the authorities. “Many journalists and talk show participants said they exercised self-censorship as a result,” the AI report added.
The report found the torture and other ill-treatment to be “widespread and committed with impunity”, and said the police routinely tortured detainees in their custody.
Methods, according to the report, included beating, suspension from the ceiling, electric shocks to the genitals and, in some cases, shooting detainees’ legs. At least nine people died in police custody between January and July 2014, allegedly as a result of torture.
Courtesy: Prothom Alo
