Bangladesh: Arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention of six Anti-Discrimination Student Movement organisers

The Observatory has been informed about the arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention of Messrs Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumder, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, and Ms Nusrat Tabassum, six organisers of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement has been at the forefront of the ongoing nationwide protests demanding a reform of the quota system for government jobs, which have been violently repressed by security forces, resulting in the death of more than 200 people and the injuries to thousands more.

On July 26, 2024, at approximately 3:30pm, a group of plainclothes individuals took Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, and Abu Baker Majumder from the Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in Dhanmondi District, Dhaka, where they were undergoing treatment for injuries inflicted upon them by the police during another detention spell a week earlier. The individuals transferred the three activists to an unknown location, against the advice of the doctors who were treating them and without completing the discharge process. Later on the same day, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed the detention of the three activists citing their “own security” as the reason for their arrest.

On July 27, 2024, officers of the Detective Branch of police in Dhaka took Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah into custody in an unknown location, allegedly “to give them personal security and to know some information about the recent incidents.”

On July 28, 2024, at around 5:00am, 10 to 15 plainclothes armed men claiming to be from the Detective Branch of police took Nusrat Tabassum up from her cousin’s house at Rupnagar in Mirpur District, Dhaka, and took her to an unknown destination. In the afternoon, the Additional Commissioner of the Detective Branch of police in Dhaka confirmed that Nusrat Tabassum had been taken into custody “to ensure her security.”

At the time of publication of this Urgent Appeal, Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumder, and Nusrat Tabassum are arbitrarily detained at the Detective Branch of police headquarters in Dhaka, without having been produced before a court, and Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah are still arbitrarily detained at an unknown location, without any access to lawyers or relatives.

The Observatory underlines that Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder were previously taken into custody on July 19, 2024, and Nahid Islam on July 20, 2024, before being released. The three activists reported that they had been tortured during the time they were held.

The Observatory recalls that the ongoing nationwide protests began on July 1, 2024, when students groups took the streets to demand a reform of the quota system reinstated by the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on June 5, 2024, which would reserve 56% of the government jobs to certain categories of people, with 30% of these jobs being allocated to the relatives of “freedom fighters” in the 1971 Liberation War. The protests have been violently repressed by law enforcement authorities through the use of unnecessary and disproportionate force, aided by the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), a students’ political organisation affiliated with the ruling party, the Awami League. On July 18, 2024, the authorities in Bangladesh shut down internet services without warning, and internet connection has not been fully restored at the time of publication of this Urgent Appeal.

The Observatory strongly condemns the arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention of Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumder, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, and Nusrat Tabassum, which seems to be only aimed at punishing them for their legitimate human rights activities and the exercise of their right to peaceful assembly.

The Observatory urges the authorities in Bangladesh to immediately and unconditionally release Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumder, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, and Nusrat Tabassum, and to put an end to all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level, against them.

The Observatory calls on the authorities in Bangladesh to carry out an immediate, thorough, and impartial investigation into the alleged acts of torture and ill-treatment against Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, and Abu Baker Majumder, while ensuring their protection, and to bring the perpetrators to justice in accordance with international standards.

The Observatory finally urges the Bangladeshi authorities to put an end to the ongoing police and military crackdown on protesters and to guarantee, in all circumstances, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, as enshrined in international human right law, and particularly in Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Bangladesh is a State Party.