Govt blocked independent probe into Miraj Sheikh's disappearance, alleges Dr Nabila Idris

The government obstructed an independent investigation into the alleged enforced disappearance of Miraj Sheikh while members of his family were jailed for protesting the incident, Dr Nabila Idris, a former commissioner of the Human Rights Commission and the Enforced Disappearances Commission, has alleged.

Writing on her verified Facebook page, Nabila accused the government of attempting to cover up the incident and said senior officials must bear responsibility for what happened afterward, even if the disappearance itself was not ordered from above.

She cited Human Rights Watch's description of Miraj's case as the first enforced disappearance since the July uprising.

"I, too, suspect that it did not happen on orders from above. But what happened afterward?" she wrote.

According to Nabila, a 15-year-old boy from Miraj's village spent 33 days in jail following clashes with security forces during protests over the disappearance.

Miraj's mother, sister and wife were also jailed for 27 days.

Despite the detentions, the government did not allow an independent investigation to establish what happened to Miraj, she alleged. Instead, ministers offered explanations that appeared to defend the incident.

"Responsibility for all this rests with the highest levels of government," she wrote.

"You cannot help cover up a crime and then insist that your government does not carry out enforced disappearances."

Cover-ups and government responsibility

Nabila said her friends in the ruling party often accused her of unfairly blaming the government for crimes that were not committed on instructions from senior officials.

She rejected the criticism, distinguishing between the government's inability to prevent every crime and its responsibility to investigate abuses and hold perpetrators accountable.

"No country can prevent every conventional crime, so I do not actually blame the government for such incidents. What I do hold the government responsible for is any subsequent cover-up or negligence," she wrote.

She said the same principle applied to mob violence, arguing that those responsible must be arrested, prosecuted and severely punished.

Failure to take action against perpetrators, she said, effectively made the government complicit in their crimes.

Referring to a recent incident of violence, Nabila alleged that an individual who had publicly defended the attack on Facebook remained free despite provisions in the existing cyber law allowing prosecution for incitement to religious violence.

More than 24 hours had passed without action against the individual, she said.

Nabila argued that the government's failure to act could not be explained by a lack of enforcement capacity, pointing to arrests over criticism of the administration.

Over 20 arrests for criticizing government, says Nabila

Nabila cited the detention of a 32-year-old man in Sylhet on Tuesday over a Facebook post criticizing the government's performance since the February 12 parliamentary election.

The man had complained that life was supposed to return to normal after the election but had instead become increasingly difficult.

She also referred to a 17-year-old boy who allegedly spent two and a half months in jail after a fabricated screenshot concerning the prime minister's family was falsely attributed to him.

According to Nabila, the boy had not created the screenshot.

"By my count, more than 20 arrests have been made since the election over allegations of making 'derogatory remarks' about the prime minister, ministers and other government figures on Facebook," she wrote.

Nabila also criticized proposed amendments to the cyber law, accusing the prime minister, the home minister and a prime ministerial adviser of defending changes that would provide legal justification for arrests over criticism of government figures.

She predicted that the government would use its two-thirds parliamentary majority to pass the amendments next month, presenting them as measures to prevent violence, curb incitement and protect women and children.

However, she argued that the existing law already provided those protections and that the proposed changes would instead restrict freedom of expression.

She specifically raised concerns about political cartoons, claiming that two arrests had already been made over cartoons.

"Through legislation, they are protecting the egos of those in power," she wrote.

Nabila said the government could not evade responsibility by arguing that individual crimes had not been committed on its instructions while subsequently obstructing investigations and failing to prosecute those responsible.

"Even if these crimes were not committed on its orders, who else should be held responsible for covering them up afterward, obstructing independent investigations and failing to act against incitement to violence, while readily throwing government critics into jail?" she wrote.

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