Enforced disappearance, extra-judicial killings ‘state-patronised’

 

Sultana Kamal, president of Human Rights Forum, addresses a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity on Thursday.

Human Rights Forum on Thursday termed the enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings by the law enforcers as the ‘state-patronised terrorism’.
“Enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings are obviously state-patronised terrorism,” Sultana Kamal, president of the forum, said at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital.
She also claimed that there was no significant improvement in the country’s human rights situation from 2009-2012.
The information came as the forum, a coalition of different rights bodies, revealed a report under the United Nation Universal Periodic Review with the country’s current human rights situation at the press conference.
The forum expressed its concern over the incidents of disappearance, extra-judicial killings, attacks on the leaders and activists of opposition political parties and labour leaders.
According to the report, a total of 156 people disappeared without a trace and 462 were killed in ‘crossfire’ by the law enforcers from 2009-2012.
Besides, it also mentioned that the rights of indigenous people and religious minority; people’s rights to organise rallies; freedom of expression; and freedom of Anti-Corruption Commission and National Human Rights Commission were also hampered.
The report however said the government has made some positive advancement in different sectors including the maternal and child health care.
The government has banned corporal punishment and private coaching in educational institutions, which are also positive achievements, the report said.