DHAKA: Bangladesh’s new government won power promising to end political violence, but six months after Prime Minister Tarique Rahman took office, the killings continue.
Rahman, who leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), pledged during February’s elections to end the state-backed violence that marked Sheikh Hasina’s rule before her ouster in the 2024 revolution.
Rights groups say political rivalries, weak law enforcement and a culture of impunity are driving continued violence after the elections brought Bangladesh’s first elected government to power since the uprising.
Prominent rights organization Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) recorded at least 66 politically related killings, along with 61 deaths in police custody, 11 extrajudicial killings and other alleged human rights abuses over the last six months.
“Deaths in jail and police custody appear to be rising,” ASK senior official Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir told AFP.
