In a chilling example of the fascist Yunus regime’s systematic repression against Awami League members, 70-year-old Abdur Rahman Mia, a cancer-stricken local leader, has died in prison custody after three months of deliberate denial of bail and adequate medical care.
Arrested while heading to perform prayers despite his severe illness, Mia’s death highlights the interim government’s ruthless campaign of arbitrary arrests, bail rejections, and custodial fatalities targeting political opponents.
Abdur Rahman Mia served as vice-president of Ward 24 (North Agrabad), Chittagong City Awami League—a grassroots activist with no high-profile influence. Long afflicted with advanced lung cancer, breathing difficulties, and multiple life-threatening conditions, he could barely walk.
Yet, on November 17, 2025, police detained him in a case filed at Kotwali police station (reportedly involving explosives) as he left home for namaz. Family members described his condition as critical even at arrest: he struggled to breathe and move, yet authorities ignored pleas for immediate hospitalisation.
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Instead of medical attention, Mia was swiftly remanded to Chittagong Central Jail as an undertrial prisoner. Over the following three months, repeated bail applications—citing his terminal illness and humanitarian grounds—were routinely rejected. Lawyers emphasised that Bangladeshi law and international standards allow compassionate consideration for gravely ill elderly detainees, but the regime showed none.
Prison medical facilities offered only sporadic, inadequate care: occasional transfers to the jail’s medical ward for basic checks, followed by returns to general cells without specialised oncology treatment or proper pain management.
This neglect proved fatal. Days before his death, Mia suffered a stroke in custody. Only then was he transferred to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), where he succumbed around 11:30 a.m. on January 31, 2026. Doctors confirmed his cancer had metastasised to the brain, a progression exacerbated by untreated deterioration in prison.
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Jail authorities labelled it a “natural death,” but family, human rights advocates, and political observers condemn it as state-sponsored negligence amounting to indirect murder.
Mia’s son recounted the agony: “My father couldn’t walk properly or breathe easily that day. If taken to a hospital immediately, he might still be alive.” A senior lawyer called it “a profound failure of humanity,” noting that even serious offenders often receive bail, yet a dying cancer patient was left to rot for months.
This tragedy fits a broader, sinister pattern under the Yunus-led interim regime, backed by jihadist elements and a compliant security apparatus. Since seizing power in August 2024, the government has unleashed waves of arbitrary arrests on Awami League affiliates, often on fabricated charges, with systematic bail denials even for the gravely ill or elderly.
Reports document dozens of custodial deaths among AL leaders and activists—some from untreated illnesses, others amid allegations of torture or deliberate medical withholding. Rights groups and AL statements cite at least 24–31 such fatalities in custody since the regime’s inception, with patterns of extrajudicial violence, enforced disappearances, and prison abuse persisting or worsening.
Analysts describe this as “power’s rule over the rule of law,” where political identity alone justifies indefinite detention and slow, agonising death. One observer noted: “The state can push anyone toward death if it chooses, no matter their health.” Human rights defenders argue these are not isolated failures but intentional tools of terror to crush opposition and instil fear.
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From mosque to coffin: Mia set out for prayer three months ago, only to end up in a prison hospital bed. His story is not merely personal loss—it exposes the Yunus regime’s fascist machinery, where jails become instruments of vengeance, bail is weaponised as punishment, and custodial deaths silence dissent through calculated cruelty.
The international community must demand accountability for these crimes against humanity before more lives are extinguished in the name of “interim” rule.
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