BANGLADESH has said at least 287 people are assumed to have been killed in abductions during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, according to a commission investigating enforced disappearances.
The commission said some bodies were believed to have been dumped in rivers, including the Buriganga in Dhaka, or buried in mass graves.
The government-appointed panel, formed after Hasina was toppled by a mass uprising in August 2024, said it examined 1,569 cases of abductions and concluded that 287 victims were presumed dead.
"We have identified a number of unmarked graves in several places where the bodies were presumably buried," commission member Nur Khan Liton told AFP.
"The commission has recommended that Bangladesh seek cooperation from forensic experts to identify the bodies and collect and preserve DNA samples from family members."
In its final report submitted to the government on Sunday, the commission said security forces had acted under the command of Hasina and senior officials.
It said many of those abducted were members of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), both opponents of Hasina.
Separately, police in December began exhuming a mass grave in Dhaka.
The grave contained at least eight victims of the uprising against Hasina, with all bodies found to have bullet wounds, according to Criminal Investigation Department chief Md Sibgat Ullah.
The United Nations has said up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina tried to remain in power.
Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia in November for crimes against humanity.
"We are grateful for finally being able to know where our brother is buried," said Mohamed Nabil, whose 28-year-old brother Sohel Rana was identified among those found in the Dhaka grave.
"But we demand a swift trial for the police officials who shot at the people during the uprising."
