Son of executed Jamaat leader released from detention: Lawyer

Bangladeshi opposition activist and lawyer Ahmad Bin Quasem has been released from detention, his lawyer Michael Polak said in a post on X, external.

Rights groups say Mr Quasem was taken away by security forces in 2016 - one of the hundreds of forced disappearances seen in Bangladesh under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's rule, reports the BBC. 

Mr Quasem is the son of Mir Quasem Ali, leader of the now-banned Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party, whom Bangladesh executed for war crimes.

He has been "released to his family and he is now with them, including his two daughters, one of whom was only one year old when he was abducted", Mr Polak said.

"Thank you for everyone who helped both publicly and behind the scenes," he added.

In a statement, Quasem's lawyer Michael Polak says: "There were many points during his detention that he was feared dead, and the uncertainty was one of the many tools of repression utilised by the regime.

"We hope that the decision…to release political prisoners held by the previous regime so rapidly is a positive sign of their intentions going forward relating to human rights, and that confirming to other families the status of their loved ones will follow tomorrow, as promised".

Speaking to the BBC, Polak, a barrister at the London-based Church Court Chambers, said that "hundreds and hundreds of individuals" had been imprisoned in Bangladesh in the past few years.

"Unfortunately, the good news won’t be shared by all," he says, stating that a number of political prisoners had died in custody.

Since Ms Hasina's resignation, key opposition leader Khaleda Zia has also been released. Ms Zia, a former prime minister of Bangladesh, leads the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).