Human rights in Bangladesh

As Md Shariful Islam writes, "The constitution of Bangladesh guarantees all the major internationally recognized human rights and assures good governance, incorporated in its fundamental principles of state policy and fundamental rights. However, the same constitution negates these rights through adoption of numerous antidemocratic stipulations." In 2005, Bangladesh experienced an unprecedented period of continuous political instability. On 17 August 2005, four hundred bombs exploded in sixty-four districts of the nation. As a result of this instability and its national security repercussions, Bangladesh's questionable human rights has deteriorated.

Bangladeshi security forces have been persistently criticised by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch due to grave abuses of human rights. These include extrajudicial summary executions, excessive use of force and the use of custodial torture. Reporters and defenders of human rights are harassed and intimidated by the authorities. Since 2003, legislative barriers to prosecution and transparency have afforded security services immunity from accountability to the general public.Hindu and Ahmadi Muslim minorities human rights are in a compromised state, and corruption is still a major problem, such that Transparency International has listed Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world for five consecutive years from 2001 to 2005.

RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) and other security agencies have been accused of using torture during custody and interrogation. One allegation of such came from a young man who was arrested in Dhaka for protesting against the assault of an old man by plainclothes RAB agents. He was later severely tortured. On 27 July 2005, two brothers from Rajshahi, Azizur Rahman Shohel and Atiquer Rahman Jewel, were arrested on fabricated charges, beaten with batons and subjected to electric shocks. It is alleged that this brutality stemmed from the brothers' family being incapable of paying a sufficient bribe. The brothers were tortured to such an extent that they were hospitalised at the Rajshahi Medical School Hospital under police custody. The most thorough account of torture in Bangladesh was the May 2007 case of torture against Tasneem Khalil, a journalist and blogger. He was tortured while in the custody of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence during the interim government, and after his release, Khalil wrote a report published by Human Rights Watch. Sweden granted Khalil asylum after he fled Bangladesh.

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