Unidentified Bodies and Custodial Deaths in Bangladesh Increased in October : MSF

The number of unidentified bodies and custodial deaths rose significantly across Bangladesh in October, compared to September, according to a report of the rights body, Manobadhikar Shongskriti Foundation (MSF).

MSF revealed the data in its October human rights report.

The organisation said that these incidents strongly reflect the growing sense of insecurity in public life, and the increase in such cases has led to public suspicion regarding the role of law enforcement agencies.

MSF publishes a report on the country’s human rights situation every month. The October report was sent to the media today, Friday. The organisation compiles the report based on newspaper reports and its own investigations.

Rise in unidentified bodies

According to the MSF report, a total of 66 unidentified bodies were recovered in October. This is not only unwanted but has also become a major cause of insecurity in civic life. In the previous month (September), the number was 52.

Most of these unidentified bodies were found floating in rivers or ponds, by highways or roadsides, under bridges, along railway tracks, in crop fields, or in abandoned areas. A small number of the bodies were recovered with their throats slit, stuffed in sacks, bloodied, or bearing injury marks.

MSF said that the recovery of unidentified bodies continues to increase, reflecting the growing insecurity in public life. At the same time, law enforcement’s failure to identify these bodies has raised questions about their role.

According to MSF’s data, in October, one child, one adolescent, 11 women, and 53 men were found dead in different parts of the country. Among them were a 7-year-old child, a 15-year-old teenager, 15 men and two women aged 20–30, 19 men and six women aged 31–40, one woman and five men aged 41–50, and 11 men and one woman over 50. The ages of three unidentified bodies could not be determined.

MSF said that merely reporting the recovery of unidentified bodies does not fulfil the responsibility; rather, identifying them is crucial. It is the duty of the state to determine their identities and ensure legal action against those involved in the killings.

Rise in custodial deaths

According to MSF data, as many as 13 prisoners – six convicts and seven undertrial prisoners–died in custody in October. In the previous month, the number was eight.

In October, four convicts and two detainees died at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj, one convict at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur, and one at Sherpur District Jail. In addition, one each detainee died at Khulna, Tangail, Chattogram, Sirajganj, and Manikganj district jails. All the deaths occurred in hospitals outside the prisons.

MSF’s executive director Saidur Rahman told Prothom Alo that the increase in deaths in custody and recovery of unidentified bodies reflects a severe deterioration of the human rights situation.

Police and law enforcement agencies are merely recovering the bodies but not fulfilling their responsibilities, he added.

"It is the duty of law enforcement agencies not only to identify the bodies and determine the cause of death through inquests and autopsies but also to return them to their families. However, apart from filing an unnatural death case, law enforcement agencies do nothing more," Saidur Rahman said.