The government has promulgated the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Remedies Ordinance, 2025, which includes provisions for death penalty and life imprisonment for those found guilty of involvement in enforced disappearances, reports UNB.
The Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division under the Ministry of Law issued a gazette late on Monday.
The Council of Advisers approved the draft of the ordinance on November 6.
According to the ordinance, tribunals will be established at district and divisional levels to handle cases related to the prevention and prosecution of enforced disappearances.
Offenses under the ordinance are non-bailable and non-compoundable.
Under the ordinance, if a victim dies as a result of an enforced disappearance, or if the person remains missing for five years, the offender may face death penalty or life imprisonment.
If a public servant or member of a law enforcement agency arrests, detains, abducts, or deprives a person of liberty and denies the act or conceals the fate or whereabouts of the person, they may face life imprisonment or up to 10 years in prison.
Anyone found destroying evidence of disappearance, or creating, installing, or using secret detention centers for enforced disappearances may face up to seven years in prison.
The ordinance also outlines penalties for senior officers or commanders of law enforcement agencies.
It states that if a superior officer orders, authorizes, approves, consents to, or instigates such crimes by subordinates, they will face the same punishment as the offense.
A superior may also be punished if negligence, incompetence, or failure to maintain discipline or control allows subordinates to commit enforced disappearances, the ordinance says.
It further states that the location of an arrested person may be kept confidential "in the interest of state security" until they are produced before a magistrate.
