Families wait as some political prisoners freed in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s ousted prime minster Sheikh Hasina fled the country by helicopter on Monday, ending 15 years of autocratic rule – Copyright AFP Munir UZ ZAMAN

Families of political prisoners secretly jailed in Bangladesh under the autocratic rule of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina waited desperately Tuesday for news of their relatives, as some of those missing were released.

“We need answers,” said Sanjida Islam Tulee, a coordinator of Mayer Daak, meaning “The Call of the Mothers”, a group campaigning for the release of people detained by Hasina’s security forces.

Rights groups accused Hasina’s security forces of abducting and disappearing some 600 people — including many from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the banned Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party.

Tulee told AFP that at least 20 families gathered outside a military intelligence force building in a northern Dhaka neighbourhood, waiting for news of their relatives.

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced Monday that Hasina had resigned after weeks of deadly protests, and the military would form a caretaker government.

Hours later President Mohammed Shahabuddin — after a meeting with the army chief — said it had been decided to free all those arrested during the student protests, as well as key opposition leader Khaleda Zia.

Ex-prime minister Zia, 78, chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is in poor health and was largely under house arrest after being sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft in 2018.

– ‘What happened to others?’ –

Among the most high profile of those released on Tuesday was opposition activist and lawyer Ahmad Bin Quasem, son of Mir Quasem Ali, the executed leader of Jamaat-e-Islami.

“He was released from secret detention this morning,” family friend and relative Masum Khalili told AFP. “He had a medical check-up, his condition is stable.” 

Quasem, a British-educated barrister, was abducted — allegedly by security forces in plainclothes — in August 2016.

Security forces during Hasina’s rule were accused of detaining tens of thousands of opposition activists, killing hundreds in extrajudicial encounters, and disappearing their leaders and supporters.

Human Rights Watch last year said security forces had committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Hasina came to power in 2009, and nearly 100 remain unaccounted for.

Hasina’s government denied the allegations of disappearances and extrajudicial killings, saying some of those reported missing drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.

“We heard Ahmad Bin Quasem has been released,” Tulee said, “but what happened to others?”