Amnesty pulls up Bangladesh

Amnesty International's 2012 annual report pulled up Bangladesh for extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, even as it notes incidents of political and communal violence, violence against women, workers protests, and issues of indigenous people’s rights and death penalty.

The report said 30 extrajudicial executions took place in Bangladesh during 2012, besides at least 10 cases of enforced disappearances.
It also mentions four deaths in political violence, 111 deaths in the Tazreen Fashions Limited factory fire and execution of one along with 45 death sentences. Amnesty campaigns worldwide against death penalty.
The 300-page report was published in London on Wednesday.

Apart from mentioning Ramu communal attacks, border killings, torture by police and tension between Bengali settlers and indigenous people in Chittagong Hill Tracts, the report also pulls up Bangladesh for 'insufficient government response' to corruption charges on the Padma bridge project, from which the World Bank finally moved out.

The report also mentions of escalating political violence in December, when Old Dhaka youth Biswajit Das was stabbed to death.

Regarding extrajudicial killing, the report noted the case of one Mohammad Atear Raman, also known as Tofa Molla, allegedly shot dead by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), ostensibly during ‘crossfire’ in Kushtia on Sep 12.

The report mentions of torture and ill-treatment by police – beating, kicking, hanging up on ceiling, food and sleep deprivation, and electric shocks – to be widespread. It also said RAB and police distorted records to cover up tortureand extra-judicial executions.

Ten enforced disappearances were mentioned in the report, including that of BNP leader M Ilias Ali.

Case of one Aleya Begum and her daughter, arrested without warrant on Sep 9 and allegedly tortured at Khoksa Police Station in Kushtia, was mentioned where the daughter was said to have faced sexual abuse by policemen.

The report also mentions clashes between indigenous people and settlers on Sep 22 in Rangamati over land issues, in which at least 20 people were injured. Police was said to have been a silent spectator.

The Ramu incident in late September was mentioned as ‘a new turn’ in attacks against minorities with thousands protesting Facebook-based information on defaming the Quran. More than 20 Buddhist temples and monasteries, one Hindu temple and scores of homes and shops belonging to ethnic and religious minorities were burned down in Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong, the report said.