International human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned what it describes as the prolonged, arbitrary detention without trial of politicians and others linked to the ousted, now-banned Awami League government by Bangladeshi authorities. The organization has called for immediate steps to end the practice.
In a statement published Sunday, HRW said police detained thousands of Awami League leaders, activists and supporters after Sheikh Hasina was forced to step down as prime minister amid weeks of protests in August 2024. Several hundred of them remain in jail without having been formally charged with any crime, the organization said.
HRW said some officials may indeed have been involved in serious human rights violations under the Sheikh Hasina government. But it said many others have been arrested on charges of killing protesters without any visible evidence. Families and lawyers of detainees allege that many of them are elderly, and some suffer from serious health problems, yet are being denied basic rights including bail and medical treatment.
Since Prime Minister Tareque Rahman took office in February 2026, at least 10 Awami League office-holders at various levels have died in custody, HRW said, with formal criminal charges never brought against most of them.
Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director, said Prime Minister Tareque Rahman’s government has promised reform, and that as a first step toward that reform, it should end the prolonged and arbitrary detention of its political opponents.
HRW also expressed concern that the government’s new National Human Rights Commission bill, if passed in its current form, would bar the new commission from investigating allegations of arbitrary arrest.
HRW said prosecutors are repeatedly opposing bail even in cases where no evidence has been presented, and that lower and district courts are routinely denying bail. Even when the High Court grants bail, the organization said, government authorities are blocking its enforcement by filing new cases against detainees.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, which tries international crimes, is barred under its own provisions from holding anyone without charge for more than a year except in written “special circumstances.” Yet the tribunal has so far detained more than 160 people without granting bail to any of them, and those detained have no right to appeal the denial of bail, HRW said.
HRW said international human rights law permits pretrial detention or conditional release in certain circumstances, but said detention without trial should be the exception, not the rule, and that decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis.
Every detained person should have the right to be brought before a judge or an equivalent authority to review the legality and necessity of their detention, the organization said. A detained person has the right to a prompt trial or to be released.
It added that any restrictions imposed before trial must be consistent with the right to personal liberty, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, and the principle of equality before the law.
Elaine Pearson said the Bangladesh government should order an independent investigation into every death that has occurred in custody and end the practice of holding people in prolonged, arbitrary detention without charge.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report