In a stinging rebuke to Bangladesh’s interim government, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has unanimously condemned what it describes as a “revenge spree” targeting former lawmakers from the ousted Awami League, highlighting rampant human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, inhumane detention conditions, and a blatant disregard for due process.
The decision, adopted at the IPU’s 216th Governing Council session in Geneva on October 23, 2025, spotlights the plight of six prominent ex-parliamentariansโSaber Hossain Chowdhury, Fazle Karim Chowdhury, Habibe Millat, Asaduzzaman Noor, Mosharraf Hossain, and Muhammad Faruk Khanโwhose cases underscore a broader crackdown ensnaring over 100 former Awami League MPs.
The IPU’s intervention comes amid Bangladesh’s turbulent post-revolutionary landscape. Since the dramatic ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024, following massive student-led protests that stormed her official residence in Dhaka, the country has been under an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
While the government has pledged reforms and elections by early 2026, critics, including the IPU, decry a wave of politically motivated prosecutions that echo the very authoritarianism protesters sought to dismantle. The report paints a grim picture: homes torched, families terrorised, and elderly detainees denied life-saving care, all under the shadow of charges like murder and sedition that could carry the death penalty.
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At the heart of the collective case (BGD-COLL-01) are allegations of threats, intimidation, arbitrary detention, and substandard prison conditionsโviolations that the IPU says flout international standards enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“The State of Bangladesh has a heightened duty of care,” the decision states, emphasising the government’s responsibility for the lives and integrity of those in custody. For these six men, once pillars of parliamentary democracy, the fallout has been devastating, blending legal persecution with physical peril.
Saber Chowdhury, the IPU’s honorary president and a veteran Awami League figure, embodies the ferocity of the backlash. Facing over 30 pending cases spanning sedition, conspiracy, unlawful assembly, explosives use, and multiple murders from 2015 to 2024, Chowdhury was arrested on October 5, 2024, and hauled to court the next day amid a hail of eggs, stones, and bricks from a hostile mob. Videos circulating online capture the chaos: a bloodied Chowdhury, struck on the head with a brick, staggering from the courthouse.
Granted bail in six cases on October 7, he was rushed to a hospital, where medical reports confirmed severe head trauma requiring overseas treatment. Yet a travel ban keeps him trapped, his recovery stalled. Complainantsโqualified under IPU proceduresโallege his August 5 home was torched by protesters chanting murder threats, underscoring a personal vendetta that transcends the courtroom.
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Fazle Karim Chowdhury, former IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians president, fares no better. Arrested September 12, 2024, the ex-MP battles heart disease, diabetes, and kidney failure in a detention cell bereft of specialised care. Denials of medication have precipitated a “severe deterioration,” placing his life “in imminent danger,” per the IPU. Psychological torment compounds the physical: humiliating media exposรฉs and whispers of assassination plots from political foes.
His family home was ransacked, employees slain in reprisal violence, and court appearances devolved into mob frenzies demanding his execution. “Urgent medical treatment abroad is essential,” the complainants urge, warning that domestic care invites mob lynchingโa fear rooted in Bangladesh’s volatile street politics.
Habibe Millat’s ordeal is one of exile born of fire. A former MP from Sirajganj, his residence was vandalised and incinerated twice in early August 2024 during the anti-Hasina uprisingโlooted on the fifth, reignited amid the frenzy. Fleeing for his life, Millat now faces three fabricated murder charges for allegedly ordering attacks on a protest march, plus extortion and killings from his parliamentary tenure.
“These are revenge fabrications,” assert the complainants, who decry the lack of evidence linking him to the violence. In hiding abroad, Millat symbolises the diaspora of fear gripping Awami League loyalists.
The elderly trio of Asaduzzaman Noor, Mosharraf Hossain, and Muhammad Faruk Khanโall in their 70s or olderโface the cruellest irony: detention that hastens their demise. Noor, arrested without a warrant on September 15, 2024, languishes in Keraniganj prison without formal charges in three murder cases tied to July-August 2024 protest deaths. Afflicted by heart disease, spinal degeneration, diabetes, and asthma, his bail pleas are rebuffed despite medical pleas.
Family visits and calls are barred; pain therapy, essential for his spine, is withheld. The IPU notes ignored discrepancies in case files and absent investigation reports proving Noor’s involvement. Transport demands to distant courts risk paralysis, yet authorities press on, indifferent to records warning of permanent disability.
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Hossain’s arrest on October 27, 2024, for a 2022 incidentโdespite an alibiโreeks of procedural farce. Denied bail twice, even with medical appeals, he endures Parkinson’s, heart-lung ailments, and other frailties in a facility lacking physiotherapy. A December 9, 2024, High Court bail grant was stayed by the Supreme Court on December 19, with orders for care flouted. Visitors report emaciation and immobility; without intervention, “his life remains at serious risk,” the IPU warns.
Khan’s seizure on October 15, 2024, mid-physiotherapy at a military hospital, was equally brazen: no warrant, no meds collected. Post-stroke, Parkinson’s, and hypertension plague him in harsh custody, bail denied despite his age. Charged with a 2022 BNP member’s murder (sans linkage) and 2024 protest deaths, plus vague International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) allegations, Khan’s defense flounders without charge details.
A November 18 ICT-BD hearing yielded no clarifications for him or 13 co-accused ex-officials: his lawyers face courtroom aggression. The IPU decries this opacity as a “serious violation of the right to a fair trial.”
This sextet’s saga mirrors a systemic scourge: over 100 Awami League ex-MPs detained in analogous circumstances, their proceedings a conveyor of vengeance. The IPU flags the September 29, 2025, custodial death of Industry Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayunโa sitting MP at parliament’s dissolutionโas a red flag. In response, fellow detainees launched a hunger strike, amplifying cries for justice. “These detentions appear politically motivated,” the decision asserts, questioning the charges’ foundations and severity, some being death-eligible.
The IPU’s demands are unequivocal and multifaceted, blending immediate relief with structural reform. It urges bail on humanitarian grounds for the four detaineesโFazle Chowdhury, Noor, Hossain, and Khanโprioritising life-saving medical access, including abroad if needed, from chosen doctors. “Take all necessary steps to ensure their right to life,” it implores, tasking authorities with updates.
On fair trials, the IPU reiterates pleas for “official and detailed information” justifying charges, insisting proceedings honour international standards: presumption of innocence, evidence disclosure, and impartiality. It laments the “nature and severity” of accusations, hinting at orchestration against Awami League stalwarts.
Logistically hamstrung, the IPU regrets visa delays barring its trial observer twice and unanswered pleas for a delegation mission. It yearns to dispatch envoys to Dhaka for dialogues with legislative, executive, judicial, and prison officials, plus civil society, including prison visits. “Full cooperation” is demanded to enable this, alongside trial date notifications.
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Broader still, the IPU frames these abuses within Bangladesh’s “complex situation,” solvable only via “genuine and collective engagement.” It exhorts political actors to launch “inclusive, credible” dialogue for a “new social pact”โtransparent, non-violent, and rights-compliant. To Yunus’s regime, it issues a clarion: foster conditions for “free, fair, transparent” 2026 polls, acceptable to all. IPU support stands ready, pending details on aid modalities.
Echoing its Universal Declaration on Democracy, the IPU insists elections embody “universal, equal, secret suffrage” in “equality, openness, transparency.” It hopes Awami League candidates and supporters will partake equally and unhindered in public affairs.
Yet frustration simmers: While noting the interim government’s “commitment to the rule of law,” the IPU “regrets the absence of responses” to August 2024 communications. Visa snags and silence erode trust, as September 2025 complainant updates go unheeded.
Human rights advocates hail the decision as a moral bulwark. “This isn’t just about six men; it’s a litmus test for Bangladesh’s democratic rebirth,” said Amnesty International’s South Asia director, Ranuha Akhter, in a statement.
“Denying elders medical care while mobs bay for blood? That’s not justice; it’s retribution.” The UN Human Rights Committee, monitoring Bangladesh’s ICCPR compliance, may amplify these concerns, potentially escalating to special rapporteur probes.
In Dhaka, interim spokespeople were mum on Wednesday, citing “ongoing judicial independence.” Awami League surrogates, however, decried the detentions as “witch hunts,” vowing electoral resurgence. As hunger strikes persist and health clocks tick, the IPU vows continued scrutiny, its February 2025 hearing a harbinger of escalation.
Bangladesh teeters: Will Yunus heed Geneva’s summons, or will vengeance eclipse reform? For Noor, gasping in Keraniganj; Hossain, withering immobile; and Khan, med-less and malignedโthe answer can’t come soon enough. The IPU’s gavel has fallen; now, Dhaka must respond.
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