Mubashar Hasan, a prominent Bangladeshi academic, has not been seen or heard from since 7 November and may have been subject to an enforced disappearance.Mubashar Hasan, a professor at Bangladesh’s North-South University, has been missing for the past three days, raising fears that he may have been subject to an enforced disappearance. Mubashar Hasan is a well-known and highly regarded researcher on religious groups in Bangladesh, who has worked with UN agencies and universities internationally.
Friends of Mubashar Hasan fear that he may have been subject to an enforced disappearance for his work as an academic researcher. Mubashar Hasan has not been seen since he attended a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) meeting in Dhaka, which is part of a project under the Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s Office. Mubashar Hasan left the meeting at around 6:30 pm. Soon after, according to a journalist who obtained his phone records, his phone was no longer working.
At 7pm, Mubashar Hasan’s family began to worry that he had not returned home. Earlier in the day, he had told his father that he would be home immediately after the UNDP meeting. At 10pm, his family went to the Khilgaon Thana police station to lodge a “general diary”, a police complaint, detailing their concerns that Mubashar Hasan had gone missing. The family also lodged a report with the Rapid Action Batallion 3, of the Bangladesh police.
During the past three years, hundreds of people – mainly opposition activists – have been illegally detained and held in secret detention. Over the past fortnight, however, there have been credible reports of other activists going missing, raising fears of a wider crackdown. Victims of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh are at high risk of suffering torture and other ill-treatment.
Amnesty International calls on the Bangladeshi authorities to:
Order an immediate investigation into Mubashar Hasan’s fate and whereabouts, keeping his family fully informed and updated at all times;
Order an immediate, impartial, independent and efficient investigation into this and all other enforced disappearances, publicly disclose the findings and bring those suspected of criminal responsibility to justice in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty;
End the practice of enforced disappearances and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance;
Ensure that activists, human rights defenders, journalists, academics and members of the political opposition are able to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association.
Enforced disappearances continue at an alarming rate in Bangladesh, often of supporters of opposition parties Bangladesh National Party and Jamaat-e-Islami. According to Human Rights Watch, Bangladeshi authorities have illegally detained hundreds of people and held them in secret detention. Odhikar, the Bangladeshi human rights organization, reported that in 2016 at least 90 people were arrested by security forces and not heard from again. The authorities deny responsibility and the victims’ families were not informed of their whereabouts. – Amnesty International
