Bangladesh’s government has proposed the death penalty for enforced disappearances after an official inquiry recorded more than 1,500 cases during deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s 17-year rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hasina, who was toppled in a 2024 uprising, was accused of using the security forces to crush dissent, with many of those detained coming from her political rivals in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A commission set up after her overthrow recorded at least 1,569 cases of enforced disappearances during her tenure, with 251 victims still missing and presumed dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, who leads the BNP, pledged during February 2026 elections to end the state-backed violence that marked Hasina’s rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill, the Prevention and Remedies for Enforced Disappearance Act, must be passed by parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If the enforced disappearance results in death…. the punishment may be extended to the death penalty”, the cabinet statement read, after the draft was agreed late on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It proposes that families of victims be compensated from the property of convicted offenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Hasina is a convicted fugitive in exile, rights groups say that political rivalries, weak law enforcement and a culture of impunity are driving continued violence in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hasina, 78, remains in hiding in neighbouring India. She was convicted in absentia by a Dhaka court of crimes against humanity in 2025 and sentenced to be hanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She told AFP last week she is determined to return home this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangladesh’s government has proposed the death penalty for enforced disappearances after an official inquiry recorded more than 1,500 cases during deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s 17-year rule. Hasina, who was toppled in a 2024 uprising, was accused of using the security forces to crush dissent, with many of those detained coming from her political rivals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440","service":"facebook","timestamp":1785846276,"status":"success"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26186,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26184\/revisions\/26186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}