Bangladesh’s human rights landscape plunged to new depths in October, with a 62% spike in custodial deaths and a wave of unidentified bodies fueling public paranoia over state complicity in extrajudicial killings, according to the latest monthly report from local watchdog Manobadhikar Shongskriti Foundation (MSF).
The findings, released on Friday, come amid mounting international outcry from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and UN experts, who accuse the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government of fostering “state-sponsored mobocracy,” enabling Islamic extremism, and orchestrating judicial violations through fabricated cases and selective prosecutions.
MSF Executive Director Saidur Rahman warned in the report: “The increase in deaths in custody and the recovery of unidentified bodies illustrates the extreme deterioration of the human rights situation. Law enforcement agencies, including the police, are stopping at recovering these bodies. But it is not only the job of these forces to recover these bodies, identify them, and conduct post-mortem examinations… but also to hand over these bodies to their relatives. But law enforcement agencies have no other job than filing an unnatural death case.”
The report documents 66 unidentified bodies recovered nationwideโup from 52 in Septemberโmany discovered floating in rivers, dumped beside highways, under bridges, or in abandoned fields, often with slit throats, bound in sacks, or bearing torture marks. Victims spanned ages: a 7-year-old child, a 15-year-old teen, 11 women, and 53 men, with breakdowns showing 15 men and 2 women aged 20-30, and 11 men over 50.
MSF stressed: “The responsibility does not end with just reporting… It is the duty of the state to recover the identity and ensure legal action against those involved in the murder.”
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Custodial horrors escalated too, with 13 deaths in Octoberโsix prisoners and seven detaineesโcompared to eight the prior month. All perished in external hospitals after jail collapses, including four in Dhaka’s Keraniganj Central Jail, one each in Gazipur’s Kashimpur, and district jails in Sherpur, Khulna, Tangail, Chittagong, Sirajganj, and Manikganj.
Rahman added: “This increase… raises doubts in the public mind about the role of law enforcement agencies.”
According to the Awami League, since July last year, at least 32 party leaders and activists have been killed in custody.
Moreover, at least 528 members and supporters have been brutally killed in revenge attacks since the Jamaat-BNP terrorists unleashed mob violence in July 2024 to unseat the government and capture power. Among them, 26 were killed in July 2024, and 138 in August.
A ‘Jungle Rule’ Unleashed
MSF tallied 44 mass lynchings in Octoberโnearly matching September’s 43โbut with 12 deaths, down from 24, signalling persistent “mobocracy” where crowds dispense vigilante “justice” for alleged thefts or crimes.
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Political violence exploded to 49 incidents, killing two BNP activists and injuring 547 others, including four shot, up from 38 cases in September. Eleven attacks targeted party offices, homes, and businesses with arson and cocktails, evoking the post-July 2024 chaos that MSF links to unchecked Islamist networks like Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam.
These trends echo broader 2024-2025 horrors: HRSS reported 239 mob incidents killing 130, plus 61 “questionable” custodial deaths and 340 journalist assaults. ASK documented 128 lynchingsโmore than double 2023’s tollโand 21 extrajudicial or custodial killings. JMBF flagged 21 gunshot deaths by security forces from August 2024 to July 2025, decrying a “surge in extrajudicial killings.”
International voices have amplified local fears, portraying Yunus’s regime as a betrayal of its reformist pledge. HRW slammed the government’s weaponisation of the Anti-Terrorism Actโironically, Hasina-era legislation against Islamistsโto jail Awami League supporters, including elderly freedom fighters, in “fabricated” cases.
“Bangladesh’s interim government… is increasingly using the recently amended counterterrorism law to arrest alleged supporters,” HRW stated, noting over 272,000 implicated in 1,598 cases in Yunus’s first 100 daysโmostly political foes.
UN experts decried “state-sponsored mobocracy,” warning of retaliatory violence against Awami affiliates, police, and minorities post-Hasina. An October UN Human Rights Council session saw activists like Luis Paulo de Morais Casaca blast: “It was hijacked by hardcore, fanatic Islamists who want to destroy the country. They start with the minorities, but they don’t stop… They are a threat to the population.”
Amnesty and others highlighted judicial erosion: courts “largely failed to act as a safeguard against executive abuse,” enabling extremism.
TIB reported 2,010 communal attacks on Hindus and Sufi sites, with 30 minority murders, as bans on Jamaat and Shibir were lifted, freeing convicted terrorists. Activist Rehman Afridi warned of “jungle rule-dominated judiciary” and “emboldened Islamists” driving extrajudicial killings and minority pogroms.
MSF, drawing from media and field probes, urged state accountability, but as Sapran’s August 2025 report tallied 111 mob killings and 640 child violence cases since the uprising, hope dims.
DW queried: “Are human rights eroding under Muhammad Yunus?” With 15 million reportedly displaced by fear, rights defenders demand UN-led probes into “vindictive” governance.
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