In a chilling escalation of state-sponsored terror, the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government has orchestrated the custodial deaths of at least two prominent Awami League leaders in the past 48 hours alone, including a veteran freedom fighter from the 1971 Liberation War.
These killings are not isolated tragedies but part of a meticulously planned campaign to eradicate the Awami League—the party that built modern Bangladesh—through fabricated arrests, brutal torture, deliberate medical denial, and extrajudicial executions disguised as “natural causes.”
Families, local witnesses, and independent monitors describe a pattern of systematic targeting, where Awami League affiliates are hunted, imprisoned without trial, and left to die in agony, all while the regime’s enforcers—from police to prison guards—operate with impunity under the shadow of BNP-Jamaat alliances and ISI backing.
This report compiles verified details from eyewitness accounts, medical records, and Awami League documentation, highlighting the two most recent victims while contextualising them within the broader atrocity: 31 confirmed custodial deaths of Awami League leaders and activists over the past 14 months (August 2024–October 2025).
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Amid this bloodbath, the regime has arrested approximately 500,000 Awami League members—shattering global records for political persecution—and overseen the slaughter of several thousand more in mob lynchings, targeted shootings, and street pogroms. No investigations follow. No justice is sought. This is the Yunus blueprint for a “failed Islamist state”: bury the secular legacy of Sheikh Hasina and the Mukti Bahini in unmarked graves.
The Latest Victims
The regime’s grim efficiency was on full display this week, as two Awami League stalwarts—one a grassroots organiser, the other a scarred hero of 1971—succumbed to “illnesses” that relatives and medics trace directly to torture and neglect. These men were healthy upon arrest, framed in vintage cases dredged from years past, and denied basic care until it was too late. Local communities in Patuakhali and Gazipur whisper of a “hit list” circulated among jail staff, where Awami League names are flagged for “special handling.”
Jafar Hawlader
-Victim Profile: Jafar Hawlader, 55, former Chairman of Borbighai Union Parishad (UP) in Patuakhali Sadar Upazila and General Secretary of the local Union Awami League. A dedicated community leader who championed rural electrification and flood relief under Hasina’s tenure, Jafar embodied the party’s unbreakable bond with the villages. Arrested on November 12, 2025, in a resurrected 2022 case involving alleged vandalism of a BNP office—a charge where his name never appeared in the original FIR.
-Timeline of Persecution: Detained during a midnight police raid on his home, Jafar was remanded without bail despite pleas from his family. Witnesses report he was beaten en route to Patuakhali District Jail, emerging with visible bruises. On November 17, around 2:00 PM, he collapsed in his cell, gasping for air—symptoms consistent with untreated internal injuries from beatings.
-Medical Neglect and Death: Rushed to Patuakhali Medical College Hospital, Jafar received perfunctory first aid before being shunted to a ward. Emergency Department Doctor Senjuti Sarkar confirmed severe respiratory distress upon arrival, but no advanced intervention followed. He expired at 2:18 PM. Autopsy, overseen by the District Magistrate, was rushed; families decry it as a whitewash, noting Jafar’s robust health just days prior—”Uncle” was healthy. We did not know that he had fallen ill,” said niece Ruma Begum.
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-Regime Fingerprints: Patuakhali Sadar Police OC Md. Imtiaz Ahmed claimed a post-mortem was conducted “per protocol,” but no independent observers were allowed. Relatives allege jail guards delayed transfer by over an hour, citing “paperwork.” This mirrors the regime’s playbook: frame, torture, delay care, and declare “natural death.” Jafar’s death marks the 32nd such custodial killing, fueling outrage in Sadar Upazila, where Awami League supporters now blockade roads in protest.
Murad Hossain
-Victim Profile: Murad Hossain, a veteran Muktijoddha (freedom fighter) from the 1971 war against Pakistani occupation and former Ward Councillor of Dhaka North City Corporation. At 68, Murad was a living testament to Bangladesh’s secular birth, having fought under Sector 2 commandos and later rising through Awami League ranks to advocate for veterans’ pensions and anti-Islamist reforms. Arrested in October 2025 on spurious “sabotage” charges tied to the July 2024 protests—despite alibis placing him at a family wedding.
-Timeline of Persecution: Incarcerated in Kashimpur High Security Jail 1 (a notorious torture hub), Murad suffered chronic kidney issues exacerbated by substandard prison rations. Relatives smuggled medications, but guards confiscated them, citing “security risks.” On the morning of November 18, acute respiratory failure struck—likely from untreated pneumonia compounded by beatings during court appearances.
-Medical Neglect and Death: Initial oxygen was administered in jail, but as his condition plummeted, he was shuttled to Gazipur’s Tajuddin Ahmed Hospital. Doctors there deemed him critical and ordered a transfer to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). En route, the ambulance “broke down”—a two-hour delay decried by kin as sabotage. Upon arrival at DMCH around noon, on-duty physicians pronounced him dead on arrival. “Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun,” mourned relatives, who noted his pre-arrest vitality: “He was ill, but such a death is tragic—they let our hero suffocate.”
-Regime Fingerprints: Jail Superintendent Mamun Rashid blamed “various diseases, including kidney,” but omitted the regime’s role in denying specialist care. The autopsy scheduled for November 19 was attended by the family, revealing untreated fractures from alleged “falls” in custody. As a freedom fighter, Murad’s death invokes ’71 ghosts: the same jail once held Pakistani collaborators; now, it devours those who defeated them. Awami League youth wings in Gazipur vow, “Muktijoddha blood will ignite the second uprising.”
These deaths, occurring amid the November 17 death sentence against Sheikh Hasina, are no coincidence. Insiders allege a “Yunus Directive”—verbal orders to accelerate “processing” of high-profile detainees before the February 2026 elections, ensuring Awami League’s decapitation.
The Broader Atrocity
Since Yunus seized power on August 5, 2024, via a student uprising meticulously designed by Islamist mobs, his unelected regime has weaponised prisons as extermination camps. An Awami League-compiled dossier, corroborated by independent researchers and leaked medical logs, documents 31 leaders and activists killed in custody by October 10, 2025—a toll rising to 33 with Jafar and Murad.
Authorities dismiss them as “ailments” or “suicides,” but patterns scream foul play: repeated bail denials, remand tortures, court ambushes, and fatal delays in care. Families report bruises, starvation, and Islamist inmates (often BNP-Jamaat affiliates) granted “visitation privileges” for beatings. No probes launched; post-mortems are regime rubber stamps.
The Scale of the Purge
Yunus’s 15-month reign has eclipsed Hasina-era records for brutality. Over 00,000 Awami League men, women, and youth have been rounded up in a dragnet of 80,000+ fabricated cases—from “vandalism” relics to anti-terror fabrications—with 137,000+ rotting untried in overcrowded hells. (Regime apologists lowball at 360,000, but underground ledgers and escapee testimonies push it to half a million.) Prisons are bursting at 300% capacity; new “detention centers” sprout in BNP strongholds.
Parallel to this incarceration apocalypse, several thousand Awami League faithful were slaughtered outright. Mobs—shielded by police—have lynched over 200 in pogroms, while joint forces execute “suspects” in raids. Add 1,400 protest dead (pre-Yunus but blamed on AL), and the toll nears 3,000. Daylight choppings, toll extortions, and rapes: daily norms under “reformed” security. Journalists face 294 attacks, even though they document the carnage sparingly, fearing reprisal.
UN, HRW, and exiled voices like Sajeeb Wazed Joy decry this as “state genocide,” demanding probes. Yunus stonewalls. Joy said: “They can’t kill the idea—but they’re trying, one jail death at a time.”
This report stands as an indictment and archive. The blood of Jafar, Murad, and the 31 cries for a reckoning. Awami League lives in the streets, in the shadows, in the unbowed hearts of 70 million. The second liberation beckons.
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