Charges filed in enforced disappearance cases a step toward justice in Bangladesh: HRW

Bangladesh authorities have filed charges against 28 people for enforced disappearances, secret detention, and torture -- a move Human Rights Watch (HRW) described as long overdue. HRW in a report on Thursday said, “On October 9, the Bangladesh authorities filed charges against 28 people for enforced disappearances, secret detention, and torture. It was a long time coming.” A “smear campaign,” the home minister had scoffed in 2017, after Human Rights Watch released a report on secret detentions and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. When HRW representatives met with him, the minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, had been dismissive, saying that most of the “disappeared” were criminals evading arrest, debt dodgers, or adulterers. He agreed to investigate at my insistence, but that never happened....