In the wake of widespread protests and a subsequent political upheaval, diabolical stories of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other human rights violations under the former fascist government have come to light. One such investigation revealed that during the tenure of the ousted administration, children were also detained in secret prisons alongside adults.
There, detainees were subjected to torture, and children were even used to exert pressure during interrogations. One of the horrific methods used to pressure detainees involved denying children the opportunity to breastfeed.
On Tuesday, January 21, Turkish news outlet TRT World reported that several children were among the hundreds of detainees in Bangladesh’s secret detention centers. The findings were revealed by a commission investigating enforced disappearances carried out during the tenure of the now-deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. TRT world cited the report of this commission.
According to the report, at least half a dozen children spent months in prison with their mothers. These children were reportedly used as leverage during interrogations, with incidents of denial of breastfeeding cited as one such tactic.
On August 5 Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee due to the mass protest.
Currently, she is residing in India. International Crimes Tribunal has already issued an arrest warrant against her for crimes against humanity, including genocide during the anti-discrimination student movement in July and August.
The Hasina administration has faced allegations of widespread human rights violations, including the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of political opponents and the illegal abduction and disappearance of many others.
The commission has stated that it has detailed information about several incidents where women, along with their children, disappeared.
The report also mentioned that a pregnant woman was detained with her two young children and shen was beaten up while in custody.
“This is not an isolated incident,” the commission’s report noted.
The commission revealed that a witness showed investigators the room where she had been detained as a child with her mother. This secret detention center was operated by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a security force that Hasina often used for extra-judicial killings.
According to the report, her mother “never returned.”
In another case, a couple and their child were detained, and the child was denied breastfeeding as a form of psychological torture to pressure the father during interrogation.
However, the previous government always denied these allegations while it was in power.
Hasina's government claimed that some of the missing had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while attempting to reach Europe.
According to the commission, nearly 200 Bangladeshis abducted by security forces remain missing.
Source: TRT World and other agencies
bd-pratidin/Rafid
