‘They are threatening people, telling them not to speak of the disappearance’

Lawyer Mujahidul Islam Shahin has accused Bangladesh Coast Guard personnel of threatening residents and pressuring potential witnesses in the coastal Mongla-Bagerhat region not to speak about the alleged enforced disappearance of Miraj Sheikh.

“They are going there and threatening ordinary people and taking them away,” Shahin said at a programme at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka on Monday. “After detaining people, they are telling them, ‘You will give false testimony. You will not say that this disappearance happened.’”

Shahin, who is pursuing the case before the High Court Division, called for an independent or inter-agency investigation, arguing that allegations against individual Coast Guard officers should not be left solely to the force itself to investigate.

Miraj Sheikh allegedly disappeared after being detained in April. Shahin described it as the first allegation of enforced disappearance involving a law enforcement agency to reach the High Court since Aug. 5.

‘We saw him being taken to a boat in handcuffs’

Shahin said lawyers collected reports from several newspapers while preparing the writ petition and attached them to their submission before the High Court. Some contained detailed accounts from local residents who said they had witnessed Miraj being taken away.

“Eyewitnesses said, ‘Yes, we saw him being taken to a boat in handcuffs.’ What stronger testimony could be required than that?” Shahin said.

He said the reports documented accounts from different residents, reproducing their descriptions in their own language, and were presented to the court as evidence supporting the allegation.

“With this kind of evidence available, how can the Coast Guard deny it?” he asked.

Shahin stressed, however, that alleged crimes by individual officers should not implicate the entire force.

“If one or two officers of that force commit a crime, the entire force should not bear responsibility for it,” he said.

Instead, he said, the Coast Guard and the government should determine what happened to Miraj — including whether he was killed, forcibly disappeared or is being held somewhere — and bring any officers involved to justice.

“We no longer want to see the entire Coast Guard assuming responsibility in order to protect one or two officers,” he said.

Warning over return of disappearance culture

Shahin said the culture of enforced disappearances that had prevailed in Bangladesh had largely ended, but warned that the handling of the Miraj case could send a dangerous message to other law enforcement agencies.

By allegedly carrying out another disappearance, he said, the Coast Guard appeared to have created a perception among law enforcement personnel that “enforced disappearances can still be carried out as before and that there will be no accountability.”

He also raised concerns about proposed legal provisions governing investigations into enforced disappearances, saying that under the law being amended, a force accused of carrying out a disappearance could itself investigate the allegation.

Shahin cited the case of Sukh Ranjan Bali, a defence witness before Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, as an example of why an institution implicated in an alleged disappearance should not investigate itself.

Shahin said he was present when Bali was taken from outside the tribunal. After the defence complained that its witness had been abducted, then tribunal chairman Justice Nizamul Huq Nasim asked the tribunal’s then registrar, Shahinur Islam, who later became a judge, and prosecutor Ziad Al-Malum to examine what had happened.

According to Shahin, they subsequently said everything at the tribunal gate was normal and that no disappearance had taken place.

When CCTV footage was requested for examination, it was not provided, he said.

Bali was later found imprisoned in India and subsequently returned to Bangladesh. Shahin said international human rights organisations had helped establish that Bali was being held in an Indian prison.

He alleged that the episode demonstrated the risks of allowing people or institutions connected to an allegation to determine whether wrongdoing had occurred.

‘Reign of fear’ in Mongla-Bagerhat

Shahin accused Coast Guard personnel of establishing what he described as a “reign of fear” in parts of the coastal region, particularly Mongla and Bagerhat.

He alleged that residents were being threatened and detained and pressured to deny that Miraj had been forcibly disappeared, while the Coast Guard continued to deny involvement despite eyewitness accounts submitted to the High Court.

Shahin also said he had heard other allegations concerning Coast Guard operations, including claims of links between some personnel and local bandit groups.

“There are allegations that the Coast Guard hands someone over to a bandit group, the bandits beat that person, and then hand the individual back to the Coast Guard,” he said.

He also referred to alleged manipulation surrounding incidents involving the surrender of bandits.

Shahin did not present those allegations as established facts, saying their veracity should instead be determined through an impartial investigation under the Home Ministry.

“There are allegations against the Coast Guard in various places, not only in Mongla or Bagerhat,” he said.

At the same time, Shahin acknowledged the force’s role in protecting Bangladesh’s coastal region.

“The Coast Guard does some good work in our coastal areas. Let them continue doing that work,” he said. But, he added, the force must not be allowed to become an institution whose personnel can carry out enforced disappearances in coastal areas with impunity.

Call for independent investigation

Shahin urged the prime minister, home minister and other authorities to establish an independent or inter-agency investigation into Miraj’s disappearance rather than leaving the matter solely to the Coast Guard.

Investigators, he said, should examine telephone communications involving Coast Guard personnel around the time of Miraj’s alleged detention, including who spoke to whom, how long the conversations lasted, what was said and what language was used.

“If all this evidence is gathered and examined impartially, the mystery surrounding this disappearance can be uncovered,” Shahin said.

Any officers found to have been involved should be prosecuted individually, he added, rather than allowing their alleged actions to implicate the entire Coast Guard.

High Court deadline nears

Asked about the status of the case, Shahin said the High Court Division had issued a rule and directed authorities to submit a report within 15 working days of receiving the order, explaining where Miraj Sheikh is and what has happened to him.

Shahin said on Monday that another “day or two” remained before the 15-working-day period was expected to expire.

The petitioners had subsequently mentioned the matter before the High Court because nearly a month had passed since the rule was issued and they remained uncertain whether formal notice had been served, he said.

“Based on the information available to us, we believe the notice should already have been served,” Shahin said.

The High Court has also tasked a deputy inspector general of police with speaking to the Coast Guard and other respondents and informing the court about the steps being taken in the case, according to Shahin.

“We believe that the truth will emerge through the Honourable High Court Division,” he said. “God willing, through an order of the court, we will be able to establish Miraj Sheikh’s whereabouts — where he is and what has happened to him.”

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