MM Report
DHAKA: A Bangladesh commission investigating disappearances during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday that at least 287 people were presumed killed. The commission said some corpses were believed to have been dumped in rivers, including the Buriganga in the capital, Dhaka, or buried in mass graves.
Formed after Hasina was toppled by a mass uprising in August 2024, the government-appointed panel said it had examined 1,569 abduction cases, with 287 victims presumed dead. “We have identified a number of unmarked graves in several places where the bodies were presumably buried,” Nur Khan Liton, a commission member, told the media.
He added that the commission recommended Bangladesh seek the help of forensic experts to identify the bodies and collect and preserve DNA samples from family members. In its final report, submitted to the government on Sunday, the commission said security forces had acted under the orders of Hasina and her senior officials.
Many of the abducted were members of the country’s main opposition parties, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). In a related investigation, police in December began exhuming a mass grave in Dhaka. The grave contained at least eight victims of the uprising, all with bullet wounds, according to Criminal Investigation Department chief Md Sibgat Ullah.
“We are grateful for finally being able to know where our brother is buried,” said Mohamed Nabil, whose 28-year-old sibling Sohel Rana was identified among the dead in Dhaka. “But we demand a swift trial for the police officials who shot at the people during the uprising.”
