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The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance has found prima facie evidence of the involvement of Indian authorities in the system of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh.

In its first interim report titled Unfolding the Truth submitted to chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Saturday, the commission stated that it came to the conclusion after recording statements of victims, their families and members law enforcement agencies. 

The commission recommended the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to extend their best efforts to identify any Bangladeshi citizens who might still remain in India, according to a part of the  report shared by chief adviser’s press wing on Sunday. 

More detailed analysis will be required to fully understand the extent of the involvement of the Indian authorities and its implications for both the countries, said the report. 

‘There is a persistent suggestion in law enforcement circles that some prisoners may still remain in Indian jails,’ the report said, adding that it was beyond the jurisdiction of the commission to follow this trail outside Bangladesh.

‘We have found Indian authority’s involvement in enforced disappearances. Some victim families also told us about the matter,’ said commission member Nur Khan Liton, also a human rights activist.

Some Bangladeshi people may be still in Indian jails, he said without providing further details. 

He said that they submitted their recommendations to the interim government’s chief adviser and they would send it to the ministries concerned.

Officials of foreign ministry’s South Asia wing and the home ministry could not be reached for comments.

The formal nature of the handover of victims of enfroced disappearence in the presence of suspected Bangladeshi and Indian security personnel, all wearing ‘jom tupi’ (a type of disguise that covers the entire head) to avoid recognition, well inside Indian territory, underscores the high level of coordination between the two governments and their respective security forces, the report said.

There are two highly publicised cases that provide valuable insights into how such operations were carried out: the case of Shukhranjan Bali, abducted from Bangladesh Supreme Court premises who resurfaced subsequently in an Indian jail, and that of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salahuddin Ahmed, said the report.

Besides these incidents, Hummam Quader Chowdhury describes hearing Hindi-speaking people outside his cell with a number of inquiries such as ‘when was he picked up, has he given any information, what interrogation has been done yet’.

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed’s case exemplifies certain practices of the Bangladesh India rendition system, the report said.

Detained while hiding at Uttara in 2015, he recounts being imprisoned in a barren cell, where a hole in the ground served as a toilet. 

The blanket provided to him bore the letters ‘TFI’, indicative of ‘Task Force for Interrogation’. 

‘During that period, the only operational TFI centre that we know of was managed by the Rapid Action Battalion Intelligence Wing working under the aegis of RAB headquarters, although it was located within a walled compound inside RAB 1 battalion headquarters at Uttara in Dhaka’ the report said.

The commission has visited this location and confirmed that the RAB Intelligence Wing was still controling access to it, including holding the keys thereof.

The commission recommended disbanding the RAB and on December 10, 2021, the United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the RAB for human rights abuse.

Commission member Sazzad Hossain told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that the case of BNP leader Salahuddin and Shukhranjan Bali could be defined the involvement of Indian authorities.

‘We are yet to know the whereabouts of Shukhranjan Bali. We are trying to contact his family. The home ministry and the foreign ministry should contact the Indian authorities about the detained Bangladeshis,’ said Sazzad.

He said that they had found involvement of the Indian Border Security Force and the RAB Intelligence Wing in sending people from Bangladesh to India crossing the border. 

‘We are yet to find any direct involvement of Border Guard Bangladesh,’

he said.

Interviews with soldiers deputed to the RAB Intelligence Wing have yielded further information about the practice of captive exchanges between the two countries and the possible subsequent fate of the detainees, the report said.

One soldier described being present on two occasions in 2011 when the RAB Intelligence Wing received three captives from India via the Tamabil border in the presence of uniformed Indian Border Security Force personnel.

On one occasion, two captives were received and subsequently killed by the side of the road after the exchange. 

On the other occasion, one captive was received and handed over alive to another team inside Bangladesh, said the report.

In return, RAB Intelligence Wing handed over two captives from Bangladesh to India, it said.

The commission in its first interim report found prima facie evidence of involvement of the deposed prime minister Sheikh Haisna and some high-ranking officials of security forces and her government, including her defence adviser retired Major General Tarique Ahmed Siddique in enforced disappearances.

The commission also found involvement of former National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre director general and sacked Major General Ziaul Ahsan, senior police officers, including former Special Branch chief Monirul Islam and former Dhaka Metropolitan Police detective branch chief Md Harun-Or-Rashid, in several incidents of enforced disappearance.

The second method of target selection appears to involve direct orders from politically connected or otherwise influential figures, the report said. 

For example, in the notorious seven-murder case in Narayanganj, the accused Tareque Sayeed Mohammad (former RAB 11 Commanding Officer) stated in his confession under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that he had received the go-ahead signal from Ziaul Ahsan (hen RAB additional director for general operations), it said.

according to the report, enforced disappearance victim Hummam Quader Chowdhury, recounted being told at the point of his release, ‘The honourable prime minister is giving you a second chance, but there are certain conditions. You must refrain from politics, leave the country, and return only when the situation improves. Understand that the honourable prime minister is granting you a second chance in life..’

The commission said that they already recorded 1,676 complaints of enforced disappearances, while 758 complaints were already scrutinised.

The commission estimates the number of enforced disappearances in the country would cross 3,500.

Of the 758 scrutinised disappearances 27 per cent of the victms were still missing and 73 per cent reappeared alive later, the report said.