Bangladesh: Rights abuses after Hasina's ouster spark fear

Bangladesh has been in political turmoil since longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in August 2024 following a mass student-led uprising against her autocratic rule.



During her 15 years in power, Hasina was blamed for extensive human rights abuses, including mass detentions and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.




After her ouster, the interim government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus promised major reforms, aiming to improve governance in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.



Authorities have launched investigations into rights abuses committed by the Hasina administration.



They have also arrested Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, who served as the police chief during Hasina's final years in office. He has now turned into a witness in a case accusing Hasina and many of her ministers of ordering a deadly crackdown during the mass protests.



While these legal proceedings have been welcomed as steps toward justice and accountability, new reports from rights groups have raised fresh concerns about ongoing abuses.



"We took a stand against extrajudicial killings during the previous government and demanded justice. But the situation is still the same. This cannot continue," Nur Khan, a member of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, told DW.



What to know about the rights situation in Bangladesh

At the end of last month, Odhikar, a Dhaka-based rights organization, released a report saying that at least 281 people had been killed in violence involving political parties since Hasina's rule ended.



Furthermore, there were 40 victims of extrajudicial killings and another 153 people were lynched.



Bangladeshi security forces, including the police and the army, have been blamed for many of these deaths.



In its October report, the Manabadhikar Shongskriti Foundation (msf), an NGO, also warned there was a rise in unidentified bodies and deaths in custody.



The group reported that 66 unidentified bodies had been recovered nationwide in October alone, and 13 custodial deaths were reported during the same period.



msf stated that these incidents "reflect the growing insecurity in public life. At the same time, law enforcement's failure to identify these bodies has raised questions about their role."



Official data also show that an average of 43 bodies have been recovered from rivers every month until August 2025, up from 36 in the previous year.



Yunus pressured to act
Nur Khan said the police were not doing enough to investigate the rising number of deaths.



"It's not certain that all of them were murders. But some of them may have been extrajudicial killings," he argued.



"Mobs are now also responsible for extrajudicial killings in many cases," Khan added.





In October, six international groups — including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the international press watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) — sent a letter to interim leader Yunus, urging stronger action to stop human rights abuses.



"We are deeply concerned that the security sector remains largely unreformed and that members of security forces have not been fully cooperative with accountability and reform efforts," the letter stated.



Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW's deputy Asia director, told DW the government should work with "civil society, religious, and political parties" to ensure the Bangladeshis "trust the justice system" and stop engaging in angry protests and mob violence.



Young politician found dead
In January this year, security forces picked Touhidul Islam, the leader of the youth wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in the city of Cumilla, near the Indian border.



He was found unconscious near the Gumti River the next day and soon declared dead at the hospital.



Islam's death sparked outrage and protests across the country.



The government reacted by withdrawing the local army camp commander and launching a probe into Islam's death.



But the victim's family is still waiting for justice.



"No one has been arrested. We were not even allowed to file a case. The police wrote a statement, and we signed it. We were not heard. We were not even allowed to accuse anyone," his brother Abul Kalam Azad told DW.



Azad also said they received threats and warned to remain silent.



'It's very sad'
DW contacted Bangladesh's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the armed forces' publicity department, and the police about the alleged extrajudicial killings, but they declined to comment.



On November 4, Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury told reporters, "Anyone involved in killings, whether from security forces or any other groups, would be brought under the law and held accountable."



Nur Khan said the interim government's statements sounded like empty words.



"This sounds just like the statements made by the previous home ministers. It's very sad," he said. "No one has yet been held accountable, and no investigation reports have been published. If this continues, things will only get worse."


Press freedom remains a 'deep concern'
Bangladesh's press freedom deteriorated sharply under Sheikh Hasina, who served as the prime minister between 1996 and 2001, and then again between 2009 and 2024.



In the annual rankings published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the country slipped from 121st place in 2009 to 165th in 2024. Although the situation has improved this year — Bangladesh now ranks 149th in the world — it still remains in the "Very Serious" category, underscoring the weak and fragile nature of the nation's media landscape.



At a press freedom event on November 6, Yunus' press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, said: "Many (journalists) say they are afraid of the mob. I don't see that fear anywhere. Anyone who is afraid of the mob may have acted as an accomplice (to Hasina's rule) at that time."



But rights groups disagree.



"Press freedom in Bangladesh under the interim government remains a deep concern for us," Beh Lih Yi, the Asia-Pacific director of the CPJ, told DW. While some reforms have been introduced, she said, "these reforms did not go far enough."



The office of Chief Adviser Yunus declined DW's request for comment for this article.



Meanwhile, the new administration has amended the Anti-Terrorism Act — originally passed in 2009 — and used it to ban Hasina's Awami League. Several journalists have been arrested under the act, with HRW calling the recent amendments "draconian."



At least four journalists — Farzana Rupa, Shakil Ahmed, Shyamal Dutta, and Mozammel Haque Babu — have been detained for over a year on what CPJ describes as "politically motivated murder charges." The media watchdog also reports that 25 others are under investigation for "alleged genocide."



In August, journalist Monjurul Alam Panna and 15 others were arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act after participating in a roundtable on the country's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.



In a statement last month, RSF's South Asia head Celia Mercier used the detention of Monjurul Alam Panna as an example which "highlights the increasing authoritarianism of Bangladesh's interim government." She also accused the interim administration of using anti-terrorism laws "to silence critical voices."



DW Bengali's Harun Ur Rashid Swapan contributed to this report.
Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru