Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Bangladesh authorities have undermined pledges of a free and fair vote with coercive actions against the opponents, who eventually stayed away from the polls.
The US-based rights watchdog alleges this was done by way of suppressing dissent including by arresting people for criticising the government in social media posts and "widespread repression and violence" against opposition members ahead of the general election.
In its World Report 2024, HRW has said Sheikh Hasina's government returned to office for a fourth consecutive term after the January 7 elections which were boycotted by the main opposition parties because they had "no faith" in a free and fair polling process.
It lists "abuses including arbitrary arrests, torture, extortion, and intimidation by security forces."
"Bangladesh's key trade partners should insist upon an independent inquiry into security force abuses as a condition of their continued business," the report says, quoting deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch Meenakshi Ganguly.
Deputy Asia director at the HRW was also quoted as saying, "The lack of accountability for serious rights violations is fomenting a corrupt culture where Bangladeshis fear being killed or disappeared…for their political views, or even because they fail to pay a bribe." In its 34th edition of 740-page World Report 2024, HRW has reviewed human-rights practices in?more than?100 countries.
The report carries an allegation that the Awami League-led government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrested over 8,000 leaders and supporters of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) ahead of the elections, in an overt attempt to incapacitate the competition and disqualify opposition leaders from participating.
Many allegedly "disappeared" when police arrested and kept them in "unlawful" detention for days or weeks before eventually producing them in court, it claims.
Citing Bangladeshi human-rights monitors, it alleges there have been carried out more than 600 enforced disappearances since 2009, and nearly 100 people remain missing. Human-rights monitors have also noted a disturbing rise in allegations of torture in custody. Enforced disappearances got reduced significantly after the US government placed the Rapid Action Battalion, an armed law-enforcement agency, under sanctions.
"Human rights defenders faced harassment, surveillance, and detention…In September 2023, Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan of the Dhaka-based rights group Odhikar were sentenced to two years in prison for a 2013 report on indiscriminate and excessive use of force against protesters.
They were released on bail in October pending appeal, though the prosecution has sought a stiffer sentence, it added.
The HRW report says journalists faced increasing attacks for exercising their right to free expression and dozens were injured in pre-election protests.
According to the report, experts raised concerns that the Cyber Security Act 2023, introduced in September 2023 to replace the 2018 Digital Security Act (DSA), maintains the same abusive elements.
"Hundreds have been arrested under the DSA, which was used to stifle freedom of expression and punish government critics," it claims.
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