The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance in its first interim report has found that most victims were either killed or ended up in jail implicated in fictitious cases.聽
A tiny minority of the victims have been released without any charges. Some of the victims were released after August 5 changeover, according to the commission鈥檚 first interim report titled 鈥楿nfolding the truth鈥� submitted to chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Saturday.
The report said that the commission had received some verified documents detailing the methods of execution for those who were killed.
鈥業n cases where bodies were recovered, post-mortem examinations revealed that the victims had been shot in the head and disposed of in rivers with cement bags tied to their bodies,鈥� said a part of the report shared by the chief adviser鈥檚 press wing on Sunday, quoting military officers who had served in the Rapid Action Battalion as a standard procedure to ensure that the bodies would sink.
Specific sites of killing and disposal include the River Buriganga, Kanchon Bridge, and Postogola Bridge. The Postogola Bridge location, in particular, had a boat鈥攃onfiscated during a raid on a pirate hideout in the Sundarbans鈥攖hat was modified for use in these nefarious operations, said the report, adding that officers of law enforcement and security agencies ofen actively participated in these executions.
One witness, himself a RAB battalion commander, recounted an 鈥榦rientation鈥� session conducted by the then head of its intelligence wing, during which two victims were shot on a bridge in front of him as part of his initiation into the elite force.
Another soldier, previously deputed to RAB intelligence, described a victim attempting to escape by jumping into the river.
He retrieved the victim who was immediately executed on the spot.
The commission said that they already recorded 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances, while 758 complaints were already scrutinised.
It estimates the number of enforced disappearances would cross 3,500.
Of the 758 scrutinised disappearances 27 per cent of the victims remain still missing and 73 per cent reappeared alive later, the report said.
Commission member and human rights activist Sazzad Hossain said that their inquiries found a pattern of killings.聽
鈥榃e have found majority of the victims either killed or framed in cases. But the number of those framed in cases is higher than those killed,鈥� said Sazzad.
The report also revealed sordid ways followed to dismember victims鈥� bodies, including placing body to the rail tracks.
One soldier reported to have been ordered to carry a body to a railway line in Dhaka, where it was placed on the tracks.
The officers and soldiers waited in their vehicle until a train passed, dismembering the body.
In another instance, a surviving victim said that he was shoved onto a highway in front of an oncoming vehicle by a police officer. But the driver swerved and avoided hitting him and drove on.
The officer did not make a second attempt, sparing the victim鈥檚 life.
The commission in its reports infers that the methods of execution were varied with a common intent to eliminate the victims and, in some cases, dispose of their remains in ways that would prevent recovery or identification.
Disproving claims of being the work of rogue officers, the systemic nature of these practices, involving multiple locations and agencies, highlights the coordinated efforts behind these crimes, it observes, suggesting an in-depth investigation is required to fully uncover the scale and specifics of these operations.
Many disappeared individuals were later handed over to the police or produced in courts under baseless allegations made using various laws, including the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009, Arms Act, 1878, Explosive Substances Act, 1908, Special Powers Act, 1974, and the Digital Security Act, 2018 (replaced by the Cyber Security Act, 2023), the report says.
The commission also said that the accounts of torture they documented were both profoundly brutal and disturbingly methodical.
A notable distinction has emerged between the premises under the management of military officers and those overseen by civil forces, said the report.
For example, in 2010, a young man was abducted by the Rapid Action Battalion from Dhanmondi.
The victim reported that he was taken to a room where his lips were immediately sewn without the use of any anaesthetic.
In a separate incident eight years later, a middle-aged man recounted that his genitals and ears were electrocuted.
This torture also took place at a RAB facility.
The commission found prima facie evidence of involvement of deposed prime minister Sheikh Haisna and some high-ranking officers of security forces and her government, including her defence adviser retired Major General Tarique Ahmed Siddique in enforced disappearances.
The commission also recommended the disbanding of RAB.
