A commission investigating enforced disappearances in Bangladesh has uncovered harrowing details of children being held in secret detention centres during Sheikh Hasina’s regime.
The preliminary report by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances revealed that at least half a dozen children were detained alongside their mothers, spending months in black site jails. Disturbingly, babies were reportedly used as leverage during interrogations, including being denied milk as a psychological tactics.
The 77-year-old former premier, Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in August 2024 following her ouster in a student-led revolution, now faces arrest warrants for crimes against humanity. Her administration has been accused of extrajudicial killings, unlawful abductions, and the disappearance of hundreds of political opponents.
The commission detailed multiple cases of women being abducted with their children, some as recently as 2023. In one case, a pregnant woman and her two young children were beaten in detention.
"This was not an isolated case," the report stated, highlighting accounts of psychological torture, including starving babies of their mother’s milk to coerce confessions or compliance from detainees.
One witness recounted being held as a child with her mother at a detention centre run by the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). She showed investigators the room where they were kept. Her mother, she revealed, never returned.
Another case involved a detained couple and their baby, where the child was deliberately deprived of its mother’s milk as a form of psychological pressure on the father.
While in power, Hasina’s government consistently denied allegations of enforced disappearances, often claiming missing persons had drowned in the Mediterranean while attempting to migrate to Europe.
The commission, however, reports that approximately 200 Bangladeshis abducted by security forces remain unaccounted for.
Sazzad Hossain, a member of the inquiry committee, acknowledged the challenges in identifying specific officers involved in abuses but emphasized that commanders could still be held accountable.
"The effects on the victims’ families have been multifaceted, ranging from severe psychological trauma to legal and financial challenges," the report noted.
The findings have sparked calls for justice and international attention to address the grave human rights abuses committed under the previous administration.
Channeltv
