Babies spent months in secret jails during Hasina’s regime: TRT World

At least half a dozen children spent months with their mothers in secret detention centres in Bangladesh during the regime of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Turkish public broadcaster TRT World gave the information citing the preliminary report of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, formed by the interim government of Bangladesh.

“Babies were even used as leverage during interrogations, including denying them milk,” the report said.

“The commission said it had detailed multiple verified cases where women disappeared along with their children, including as recently as 2023.”

“It highlighted a case where a pregnant woman - held along with her two young children - was beaten in a detention centre.”

"This was not an isolated case," the report stated.

“The commission said one witness showed investigators the room in the detention site she had been held in as a child with her mother, run by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).”

"Her mother never returned", the report read.

“In another incident, a couple and their baby were detained, with the child starved of mother's milk as a form of psychological torture to pressure the father,” the TRT World wrote.

When in power, Hasina's government denied committing enforced disappearances, claiming some of those reported missing had drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.

The commission says around 200 Bangladeshis abducted by security forces are still missing.

Committee member Sazzad Hossain said some victims could not pinpoint the exact officers who tortured them.

In such cases, the testimonies of the victims would be used to identify the forces involved and the commander would be held accountable, Sazzad Hossain told TRT World.

Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5 last year after she was toppled by a student-led revolution.

Several warrants were issued to arrest Sheikh Hasina by several courts in Bangladesh on charges of murders and crimes against humanity as her ousted government was accused of widespread human rights abuses.