What began as a student-led uprising against quota injustices in July 2024 has devolved into a grim tableau of mob-driven vengeance under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, where “ghost cases”โbaseless accusations filed en masseโhave ensnared hundreds of thousands in a web of arbitrary arrests, extortion rackets, and personal vendettas.
Far from delivering the promised era of accountability and reform, the Yunus administration has presided over a justice system hijacked by partisan mobs, fostering what critics decry as a “mobocracy” that mocks the rule of law and erodes the very foundations of democracy it claims to restore.
A bombshell investigation by Bangladesh’s Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has laid bare the rot at the heart of this system. Of the 192 cases under probe related to the July-August 2024 violence, the PBI has completed inquiries into 78, including nine murders, reports the daily Jugantor newspaper.
Shockingly, 56% of these were deemed “false and baseless,” with no prima facie evidence uncovered. In the remaining 44% where some evidence emerged, up to 90% of the accused were found utterly unconnected to the alleged crimes, often named due to political affiliations with the Awami League rather than any factual involvement.
As PBI Chief Additional Inspector General Md. Mostofa Kamal bluntly stated: โHundreds of people have been implicated in each of these cases. People from Chattogram, Narayanganj, Barisal, Cumilla, and other far-flung districts have been named as accused in alleged crimes committed in Dhaka. Many accused have never been to Dhaka in their entire lives.โ
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This epidemic of fabricated filings extends to a staggering 1,785 criminal cases nationwide, implicating hundreds of thousandsโpredominantly Awami League leaders, activists, and supportersโyet charge sheets have been submitted in a mere 106, underscoring the glacial pace that keeps innocents in limbo.
Prominent Bangladeshi human rights lawyer Advocate Manzil Murshid, speaking to local media, pegged the true figure of unfounded cases even higher: โWe have been saying this for a long time. PBIโs findings are therefore expected. We have been saying that these cases are false. PBI investigations have simply formally confirmed our apprehensions. We said at least 60-70% of the cases are unfounded.โ Murshid further lambasted the motives: โThese cases are for extortion [chandabazi].โ
Ghost Cases
The PBI’s probe reveals a pattern of grotesque irregularities that border on the absurd. In one emblematic case filed in Dhaka’s Mirpur Magistrate Court (CR No. 890/2024), complainant Md. Abdul Aziz alleged severe injuries from an attack by Awami League and Youth League members at the Mirpur ICB crossing on August 4, 2024, naming 22 individuals alongside 200-250 unknowns.
Yet, investigators from PBI Dhaka Metro (North) unearthed no trace of Aziz himselfโhis permanent and temporary addresses were fictitious, his National ID card forged, and the mobile number listed belonged to an unrelated woman who denied knowing him. Witnesses? Phantom figures with bogus details. The case concluded with a “final report” of unproven allegations, as the complainant’s very existence evaporated under scrutiny.
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Similar farces abound. In another murder attempt case (CR No. 4448/2024, Gulshan), 77.42% of the accused โ including rural farmers from distant Sirajganjโwere exonerated after mobile CDR analysis showed they were nowhere near Dhaka. Abdul Latif, accused No. 11 in Aziz’s ghost case, told investigators: โI am a farmer. I havenโt been to Dhaka in the last 10 years. But a local influential leader, out of enmity, got my name dragged into cases. Heโs filed two against me so far and even tried to get me arrested.โ
In a Tejgaon thana murder probe (No. 960/2024), 208 named plus 900 unknowns were charged on a “eager crowd’s” complaint, only for the court to discard it as a duplicate after the real victim’s father filed elsewhere.
Even in the 34 cases with some evidence, the rot persists: 90.40% of accused in a Turag case (No. 03/2025) were unlinked; 85.23% in Badda (No. 995/2024); 84% in Jatrabari (No. 902/2024), where only one of 253 accused hailed from the locality, and the rest’s locations were unverifiable. SI Md. Jamil Uddin Rashid, who probed the latter, confirmed: โ253 accused, but only one from Jatrabari. 15-16 from Dhaka. The rest are from various districts. Their mobile CDRs showed no presence in Dhaka.โ Of the 44 unproven cases, 27 were outright fabrications, and 17 were withdrawn by complainants or settled privatelyโa tacit admission of malice.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) belated directive requiring “higher approval” for Awami League-related arrests and efforts to excise bogus names smacks of damage control, not prevention. Police headquarters sources reveal 437 cases under CrPC Section 173(A) have seen interim reports seeking discharge for 2,830 innocents, yet the harmโshattered lives, lost livelihoods, lingers. Public Prosecutor Omar Faruk Faruqi of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Court affirmed legal recourse: โThose who filed false cases can face action against them.โ But with mobsโoften BNP or Jamaat-e-Islami affiliatesโdictating filings, the Yunus regime’s complicity in this “spiral of revenge” is palpable.
Arbitrary Arrests and Extortion as State Policy
This isn’t mere oversight; it’s a systemic embrace of mob rule. Post-Hasina, “victims”โreal and opportunisticโflooded courts with cases laced with personal grudges or shakedown demands against established businesses and Awami League sympathisers. The PBI notes non-existent complainants and witnesses as the norm in baseless filings, turning FIRs into weapons of harassment. Arbitrary arrests, often sans warrants, have surged, with detainees denied bail, medical care, and due processโhallmarks of the very authoritarianism Yunus decried.
Local rights bodies have been vocal. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading Bangladeshi watchdog, documented 35 extrajudicial killings by state forces from January to October 2025, alongside 351 journalist harassments (109 physical attacks) and 39 minority assaults, attributing them to unreformed security sectors. Odhikar, another domestic stalwart, reported 10 enforced disappearances in early 2025 and warned of persisting impunity in a November exposรฉ: โArrests without warrants, denial of due process, and absence of credible investigationsโ define the new normal. Manabidhikar Sangskriti Foundation (MSF) has compiled victim databases since July 2024, highlighting how “ghost cases” facilitate extortion and vendettas, urging independent probes.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman decried the misuse as a “continuation of authoritarian practices,” bypassing media reform recommendations for politically favoured outlets while silencing dissent. The Editorsโ Council and Newspaper Ownersโ Association have slammed the climate of “control and censorship,” with over 285 journalist accreditations revokedโmostly Awami League-leaningโand 1,000+ jobs lost.
International Outcry
The global chorus is deafening. In an October 19 joint letter to Yunus, Human Rights Watch (HRW), CIVICUS, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Fortify Rights, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Tech Global Institute demanded an “immediate end to ongoing arbitrary arrests and detentions, including cases against members of the Awami League that appear politically motivated and lack credible evidence.” They condemned the Anti-Terrorism Act’s “temporary” Awami League ban as excessively restricting freedoms and used to jail peaceful activists and urged UN intervention for release.
HRW’s October 8 report blasted Yunus for wielding amended counterterrorism laws to target Hasina supporters, journalists, and protesters, calling for UN-led releases of the arbitrarily detained. Amnesty International echoed this in December, noting “mass arrests, political detentions, and lack of accountability” persist despite reform vows, with 28 custody deaths in 2025 alone.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) labeled the charges “outrageous” and a “revenge spiral,” while the Justice Makers Bangladesh in France (JMBF) October report documented 268 incidents against 849 lawyers from August 2024 to September 2025: 200 false cases (721 victims) invoking CrPC Section 54, Special Powers Act, and the Anti-Terrorism Act for arbitrary detentions, torture, and bombings. JMBF Chief Advisor Robert Simon thundered: โSuch persecution… is absolutely unacceptable in a democratic society. No human rights defender can be silenced through intimidation or arrest.โ
CIVICUS and allies in October urged ending the Awami League bans to avoid disenfranchising millions ahead of the February 2026 polls.
A Legacy of Hypocrisy
Yunus, hailed as a beacon post-Hasina, has squandered that goodwill. His regime’s toleranceโif not orchestrationโof mob-fueled cases has frozen bank accounts, imposed travel bans on 300+, and unleashed 431 physical threats, per rights trackers. Proposed Cyber Protection Ordinance 2025 looms as another gag on expression.
Since August, the cases and convictions of Yunus and thousands of politicians and criminals have been withdrawn, while the perpetrators of mass murder, arson, and looting in July-August have been given impunity.
Bangladesh teeters: Extrajudicial deaths mount (35 in 2025, per ASK), minorities face 39 attacks, and the economy reels from instability. The PBI’s revelations, amplifying long-standing warnings from ASK, Odhikar, TIB, HRW, Amnesty, and JMBF, demand immediate action: dismiss ghost cases, prosecute fabricators, reform security forces, and lift party bans.
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