BANGLADESH NEWS
The main opposition BNP on Friday demanded that the government form a credible committee to investigate the allegations of torture on the suspected 2009 BDR mutineers in custody as raised by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"Form a public inquiry committee or a judicial committee to investigate the allegations brought by the HRW," BNP front-ranking leader ASM Hannan Shah told a human chain programme.
Jatya Ganotantrik Party (Jagpa) organised the programme in front of the National Press Club in the city, demanding resignation of the government because of Padma Bridge project graft and restoration of the caretaker government system.
Speaking at the programme, Hannan Shah, a standing committee member of BNP, said the government shrugged off the report of the HRW on the torture on the accused in the BDR mutiny, but what he saw himself is contradictory to the government’s statement.
"I went to Kashimpur Jail a few days back and witnessed in my own eyes how the BDR men were kept chained up," he said.
The HRW, in its report published on Wednesday, urged the Bangladesh government to disband the Rapid Action Battalion and set up a non-military unit within the police or set up a new institution to combat crimes and terrorism.
It also urged the government to halt the mass trial of suspects in the 2009 mutiny staged by the members of Bangladesh Rifles (presently Border Guard Bangladesh).
In its 57-page report, `The Fear Never Leaves Me’: Torture, Custodial Deaths, and Unfair Trials After the 2009 Mutiny of the Bangladesh Rifles’, provides a detailed account of the mutiny and documents serious abuses in the aftermath, including torture by security forces, particularly RAB, in custody on suspicion of planning the mutiny, and of ongoing concerns about fair trial violations in mass trials of hundreds of suspects at a time.
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