Hasina gone but fate of Bangladesh’s forcibly disappeared hangs in balance

3 months ago 16

Dhaka, Bangladesh – For Michael Chakma, a Bangladeshi Indigenous rights activist, each day of his five-year detention in a secret prison allegedly run by the country’s military intelligence was harrowing and filled with unending despair.

“There was no window and I had no way to tell time, or whether it was day or night. I was in a dark, enclosed space, and when the light was turned on, it was too bright for me to see properly,” the 45-year-old told Al Jazeera. “Most of the time, I was handcuffed and shackled.”

Chakma was among more than 700 people, including top opposition figures and activists, who were forcibly disappeared by Bangladeshi authorities during the 15-year “autocratic” government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from January 2009 and June 2024, according to Odhikar, a prominent NGO.

Of these, 83 victims were later found dead, with some reportedly killed in “crossfire” with security forces, while more than 150 people remain missing.

Hasina was forced to resign and flee to neighbouring India in July after millions of Bangladeshis, led by university students, launched a nationwide movement to demand her removal.

An interim government, led by the country’s only Nobel laureate, Muhammad Yunus, has since taken over and, on August 29, formed a five-member commission, headed by a former high court judge, to probe the disappearances.

‘Thought they will kill me’

Chakma was picked up by armed men near the capital Dhaka in April 2019 allegedly for his criticism of the Hasina government’s policy on the Chakma people, the largest among Bangladesh’s Indigenous groups, who mainly live in the so-called Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in southeastern Bangladesh.

The Chakma people are mostly Buddhist and have for decades been resisting a takeover of their land by Bengali settlers in the CHT region. Studies show the Chakma population in CHT came down from 91 percent in 1959 to 51 percent in 1991, as successive governments backed the settlers, leading to an uprising by the Chakma people in the 1980s. Dhaka’s military response to the uprising saw gross human rights violations against the Chakma people, including widespread arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

During her first term as prime minister in 1997, Hasina signed the CHT Accord, which recognised the rights of the Chakma people over their land, promised them more autonomy and ended the decades-long rebellion. Her Awami League party touted it as a landmark deal.

But Chakma was among many in his community who continued to criticise the 1997 deal, mainly over the army’s ongoing presence in the CHT region. He was abducted, allegedly by security forces, in 2019.

“My interrogators told me that criticising the CHT Accord amounted to treason because Hasina’s Awami League party is the government and, by extension, the government is the state. Therefore, no one should criticise the actions of [the] Awami League or Sheikh Hasina,” he told Al Jazeera.

For five years, Chakma was in solitary confinement where he said he feared he would never see daylight again and would die in the small cell.

“I had no idea at all about what was happening outside,” he said. “The prison guards never even told us whether it was day or night.”

Last month, however, Chakma was suddenly removed from his cell. He did not know why. “I was terrified. I thought they were going to kill me,” he said.

Blindfolded and restrained, he was put in a car and driven all night. During the drive, he was consumed by thoughts of his imminent death. “I was whispering to myself: ‘They’re going to kill me, they’re going to kill me,'” he said, dreading a staged “crossfire” execution – a method he had long opposed during his activism for Chakma rights.

“When I was in that car, I was hoping they would at least kill me in an open area, allowing me a final glimpse of the world,” he said. Instead, the car stopped in a forest in the dead of the night and he heard a voice: “You are free.”

“I was instructed to not remove my blindfold for another half an hour,” he told Al Jazeera.

When he finally opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by teakwood trees. Feeling numb and struggling to process his sudden freedom, he wandered in the darkness, uncertain of his location, until he spotted a signpost that said: “Chattogram Forest Division”. Chittagong was renamed Chattogram in 2018, but the CHT retains the old name.

Realising where he was, Chakma made his way to the highway and managed to hitch a ride with a passing car. “I reached home and was reunited with my siblings. It was an incredibly emotional moment.”

‘The House of Mirrors’

Since Hasina’s fall, at least three victims of enforced disappearances have been returned to their families, including Chakma. The other two are children of prominent leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Muslim party banned by Hasina in 2013 for supporting the Pakistani forces during the country’s liberation war in 1971. The ban was lifted last month by the Yunus-led interim government.

Former Brigadier General Abdullahil Aman Azmi is the son of late Jamaat leader Ghulam Azam, while Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem is the younger son of Mir Quasem Ali, who was among dozens of Jamaat leaders executed by Hasina’s government during a widespread crackdown on the Islamist party.

Local media reports say Chakma, Azmi and Quasem were detained in Aynaghar (“House of Mirrors”), a notorious network of secret prisons operated by military intelligence. These prisons were first revealed in 2022 when Netra News, a Sweden-based investigative website, interviewed two of its former detainees.

One of those detainees was former Lieutenant Colonel Hasinur Rahman, who spent two years in the secret prison. “I was targeted for my social media posts in which I strongly criticised the Hasina government for its corruption and violence,” Rahman, a decorated army officer, told Al Jazeera.

“It’s not just one place. There are several secret prisons collectively referred to as Aynaghar. These are essentially a network of secret facilities run by army intelligence for holding high-value political and other prisoners,” he said.

Mubashar Hasan, a researcher in the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Oslo, was also held in the same prison for 44 days after his abduction in 2017 from Dhaka. He said the clandestine facilities functioned like fully operational prisons.

Hasan, who was targeted for his critical writings against the Hasina government, said the secret prison even had a medical facility. “We were regularly examined by doctors who ensured we stayed alive,” he told Al Jazeera.

He added that he was ordered to remain silent about his abduction and detention. “They issued a clear and direct threat: not only would they abduct me again, but they would also harm my family members,” said Hasan.

‘Lucky that I am alive’

Quasem, a lawyer, was picked up by plainclothed police in 2016 and kept in a windowless room, shackled. The constant hum of a large exhaust fan drowned out any sound from outside, he told Al Jazeera.

“Our health was regularly monitored. We received decent food, but just enough to keep us alive – nothing more, nothing less,” he said.

Despite his efforts to connect with the prison guards through small talk, greetings, and requests, he was informed that their superiors had strictly forbidden them from sharing any information about the outside world.

“I would ask the guards for time so that I could pray, but they never answered,” he said. “Occasionally, I would hear muffled voices and screams outside my cell. Slowly, I began to realise there were other prisoners like me. It was a fully operational prison.”

Like Chakma, Quasem was also released in the dead of the night, instructed to keep the blindfold on for half an hour. He was dropped off near a highway in Dhaka, from where he walked for an hour until he stumbled upon a charity clinic his father had once been a trustee of.

A staff member at the clinic recognised him and quickly informed his family, which rushed to reunite with him. “I am feeling lucky that I am alive,” he said.

“Inside the prison, I had lost all hope of ever seeing my loved ones again. The conditions were so dehumanising that it stripped away any sense of hope. We felt as though we were living as dead bodies.”

For years, the families of those who were forcibly disappeared suffered the agony of not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

“For eight years, we lived in uncertainty,” septuagenarian Ayesha Khatoon told Al Jazeera about her son Quasem. “We had no idea if Arman [Quasem’s nickname] was alive. Each moment in that limbo felt like an eternity.”

Quasem’s wife Tahmina Akter and their two daughters remember the day when a group of men barged into their Dhaka apartment and demanded that Quasem come with them.

“Our daughters were crying and clinging to their father’s clothes,” Akter told Al Jazeera. “We had never imagined he would go missing for the next eight years. The agony of not knowing where a loved one is defies description.”

When Khatoon was reunited with her son last month, she said it felt surreal. “It felt like a dream, and for a time, I wasn’t sure if it was really happening.”

‘Grave injustices’

While Chakma and Quasem are back with their loved ones, many families of the people forcibly disappeared continue to wait for any information about their relatives.

On August 10, Mayer Daak, a rights group dedicated to combating enforced disappearances in Bangladesh, submitted a list of 158 missing people to the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the military intelligence headquarters.

Among those still missing is Ataur Rahman, a member of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who was abducted from Dhaka in 2011. His wife, Nadira Sultana, and their children continue to await his return.

Sultana joined other family members of the disappeared in a protest outside the DGFI headquarters in Dhaka on August 11, demanding information about her husband.

“My daughter, who has special needs, still believes her father is alive. I told her I would bring him back,” Nadira told Al Jazeera. “My children want their father back and I want my husband back.”

Mursheda Begum’s husband, Faruk Hossain, another BNP member, was abducted in 2012. She filed several reports with the police and other security agencies, but received no assistance or information about Hossain.

Begum and her two daughters also protested outside the DGFI office, holding photos of Hossain. “Our lives continue to be shrouded in uncertainty,” she told Al Jazeera.

Last week, Bangladesh’s interim government signed the accession to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, an international United Nations convention aimed at ending the practice.

Mayer Daak coordinator Sanjida Islam Tulee praised the government’s decision to address the issue of disappearances under Hasina’s long tenure.

“The grave injustices of these disappearances must be uncovered and prosecuted,” Tulee told Al Jazeera. “Many families are still waiting for their loved ones to return. They deserve the answers.”

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