The government yesterday formed a five-member inquiry commission to identify and find the people who were forcibly disappeared by various intelligence and law enforcement agencies between January 1, 2010, and August 5, 2024.

The formation of the commission comes three weeks after the toppling of the previous government, which had persistently denied reports of enforced disappearance and maintained that the victims went into hiding willingly to embarrass the authorities.

Bangladesh currently has no laws criminalising enforced disappearance nor has it ratified the United Nations International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

The country has now tasked retired High Court judge Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury to lead the new commission that will investigate the circumstances under which people were forcibly disappeared by any law enforcement or intelligence agency.

These agencies include Bangladesh Police, the Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh, the Criminal Investigation Department, the Special Branch, the Ansar Battalion, National Security Intelligence, military forces, and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI).

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Locate and free all victims of enforced disappearance

The commission will provide descriptions of the incidents of enforced disappearance to the authorities concerned and make recommendations, according to a gazette notification of the Cabinet Division. 

Relatives will be informed if the commission discovers someone forcibly disappeared, said the notification signed by Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain.

It will also gather information from the investigation already carried out by any agency or organisation on the incidents of enforced disappearances.

The other four members of the commission are Justice Md Farid Ahmed Shibli, another former judge of the High Court, rights activists Nur Khan and Sazzad Hossain, and Nabila Idris, a teacher at BRAC University.

They will submit the report to the government after completing their investigation within 45 working days in line with the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1956, under which the commission has been formed.

Sanjida Islam Tulee, coordinator of Mayer Daak, a platform for the families of victims of enforced disappearance, said, "The investigation process must be transparent and the report must not seek to hide any of its findings. A system must be set up for victims to submit evidence."

The AL's narrative regarding reports of enforced disappearances unravelled after the horrifying stories of people, who were confined to secret detention centres, became public following the dramatic fall of Hasina's government.

The victims of enforced disappearance began to speak out after their release from the secret facilities known as "Aynaghar". These victims come from different age groups and political and social backgrounds, but their narratives of the thick-walled, iron-door prison cells are strikingly similar. These facilities are notorious for their complete isolation, with detainees unable to see any light from the outside world.

Many of these were run by the DGFI. The agency's heads are reportable directly to the prime minister and the prime minister's security adviser.

At a meeting with the DGFI on August 6, a six-member team, including rights activists and a UN representative, demanded access to the detention facility. The team was allowed to visit the DGFI headquarters in Dhaka on August 7.

After coming out of the facility, rights activist Shireen Huq told families of some victims that the DGFI said there were no detainees in their Dhaka facility. The agency also said that they would form a joint commission to arrange visits for rights activists to 23 other facilities across the country to see if the victims of enforced disappearance were there.

Now demands are being made from the families of the victims, rights activists and different other quarters to put an end to such torture in confinement to Aynaghar-style facilities.

According to rights organisation Odhikar, at least 708 people were victims of enforced disappearance between 2009 and June 2024.

The US in December 2021 imposed sanctions on Rab and seven of its top officers over serious rights abuses. It said the Rab and other Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies were responsible for more than 600 enforced disappearances since 2009 and nearly 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018.