Dhaka: Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, Bir Bikram, today accused the Sheikh Hasina government of creating a culture of enforced disappearances and fear through extrajudicial killings during its rule. He stated that the persecution and disappearance of opposition political figures have deprived the people of their freedom of expression.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad made these remarks while chairing a meeting with the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Anda Filip, and members of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad. They alleged political persecution by the previous government. The meeting was held at the Cabinet Room of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, attended by Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal and Chief Whip Md. Nurul Islam Moni.
Hafiz Uddin Ahmad emphasized that during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure, the government allegedly created a systematic atmosphere of state-sponsored enforced disappearances and repression to silence dissenters and opposition leaders. He claimed that secret detention centers, like ‘Aynaghar’, and laws such as the Digital Security Act and Cyber Security Act were misused to suppress opposition.
MP Sanjida Islam shared an emotional account of her brother’s prolonged disappearance, while a documentation titled ‘From Persecution to Revolution: Uncovering Systematic Human Rights Violations by the State’ was presented, detailing alleged institutionalized disappearances and repression.
MP Barrister Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman recounted his experience of enforced disappearance, and MP Humam Quader Chowdhury described seven months of alleged inhumane detention at a secret facility. MP Tahsina Rushdir Luna highlighted her husband Ilias Ali’s disappearance in 2012 as a pivotal moment that brought the term ‘enforced disappearance’ to public attention in Bangladesh.
IPU Secretary General Anda Filip condemned the alleged actions of the previous government as inhumane. Drawing parallels with Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime in Romania, she promised to submit a report to the IPU Governing Bodies covering the alleged enforced disappearances and repression in Bangladesh.
The meeting was attended by several MPs and officials, including Barrister Muhammad Nawshad Zamir, Jahrat Adib Chowdhury, Tahsina Rushdir, and others, who shared their experiences of political persecution under the previous government.