Bangladesh police arrest top human rights activist

Adilur Rahman Khan being escorted by policemen in Dhaka yesterday.

Agencies/Dhaka

Police in Bangladesh yesterday said they have arrested a prominent human rights activist for spreading “false and fabricated information” about a May security force crackdown on hardline Islamist protesters.

Plain clothes officers detained Adilur Rahman Khan, the secretary of Bangladeshi rights group Odhikar, at his home late on Saturday and he has been remanded into custody for five days for questioning, Dhaka police spokesman Masudur Rahman said.

Odhikar expressed concern that Khan might be tortured during his detention, while the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has protested the arrest.

“He spread false and fabricated information on the Shapla Chattar operation,” Rahman said, referring to the May 5-6 crackdown on Islamist group Hefajat-e-Islam.

At the time, police said they used sound grenades, water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse at least 70,000 Islamists who were camped around the Motijheel commercial area.

Police said they recovered 11 dead bodies after the operation, including an officer who had been hacked in the head with machetes.

But in a detailed report on the operation released last month Odhikar challenged the police and government version of events, claiming that around 60 people were killed in the crackdown, making it one of the deadliest in the country’s history.

Khan, a lawyer, has also been a prominent critic of government security force human rights abuses, including hundreds of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Khan’s legal counsels sought bail for the rights chief today but the petition was rejected.

“Adilur Rahman Khan is a lawyer of the supreme court of Bangladesh, he is a former deputy attorney general and he is a human rights defender. It is an insult and shame that a magistrate can actually pass an order of remand on a fellow officer of the court,” said Saira Rahman Khan, the activist’s wife and founding member of Odhikar.

She added: “Neither Odhikar nor he works for any political party but for human rights and the people of Bangladesh.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned Khan’s arrest. “Adil is one of the leading human rights activists in Bangladesh and someone we have worked with closely on sensitive issues such as extrajudicial killings, torture and labor rights,” Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW, said.

Adams added: “He has been a strong critic of each of the past governments and has been threatened and followed for a long time. We are concerned for his safety. It appears he is being persecuted for his criticism of the current government.”

British high commissioner in Bangladesh Robert Gibson was “concerned at the arrest of Odhikar secretary Adilur Rahman”, he said in a tweet post yesterday.

Several rights groups including HRW and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) have issued appeals to Bangladesh government to release Khan.

“Adilur’s arrest will have a chilling effect upon the entire civil society in the country. That such arrest in Bangladesh often is accompanied by brutal forms of torture, leading to even deaths in custody, places Adilur’s life and security at great peril in the hands of the state agency,” reported the AHRC.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said Bangladeshi security forces have killed at least 150 protesters since February, using excessive force during demonstrations against war crime trials for top Islamists.

Though none of its members have been tried for atrocities, Hefajat-e-Islam joined the protests in May, demanding, among other things, a ban on public mixing between men and women and the death penalty for blasphemy. 

HRW said at least 50 people were killed in the May 5-6 crackdown.