New data from human rights groups shows that extrajudicial killings and custodial torture have continued largely unabated under Muhammad Yunus’s interim regime. For many Bangladeshis, the promise of justice by Yunus in the post-Sheikh Hasina, now might look increasingly like a replay of the past.
Anger was building up against the Sheikh Hasina regime for some years over its high-handedness before students took to the streets in July 2024 and forced her to leave Bangladesh in August. Custodial torture and extrajudicial killings were rampant. Over a year on, nothing much seems to have changed under the caretaker regime of Muhammad Yunus.
A compilation of extrajudicial killings by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a Bangladeshi legal aid and human rights organisation, reveals nothing much seems to have changed in post-Hasina Bangladesh.
The ASK report documents 37 incidents of extra-judicial killings and custodial deaths between January and November this year. While 14 of the deaths have been due to shootouts before arrest, 11 are attributed to physical torture in custody.
It also lists 95 deaths in custody, including of 64 undertrials, till November 2025.
Bangladesh witnessed an “alarming continuation” of torture and abuses, The Daily Star quoted rights activist Nur Khan Liton as saying.
“The perpetrators of these crimes remain in positions of power… No one has been held accountable. There is no sign that justice will be served,” he said, adding that the “entrenched culture” of custodial deaths will continue if the next government doesn’t act.
The Hasina regime was known for sudden disappearances and harsh treatment of political opponents at two dozen secret detention centres, according to reports.
One of the places was Aynaghar or House of Mirrors in Dhaka Cantonment. Those detained didn’t get to see anyone for years, with reports of people being kept in solitary confinement for up to eight years. Such were the horrors, that those we ever saw sunlight of freedom, barely spoke about those dark days. Over 100 people, mostly political critics of Hasina’s Awami League, are still unaccounted for.
“No party bore this burden more than the BNP. Across extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, custodial deaths, and false charges, BNP leaders, activists, and supporters formed the largest share of the wounded and missing,” said Tarique Rahman, Acting Chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Awami League main political rival, on Wednesday (December 10).
Sheikh Hasina and most of her top-rung Awami League leaders are now in exile. Though Bangladeshis remember the authoritarian regime of Hasina, the Awami League tries to pass the buck to the BNP and its chief, Sheikh Hasina.
“The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), created in March 2004 under Khaleda Zia, soon became central to the rise in extrajudicial killings. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented at least 350 deaths attributed to RAB since 2004, many labelled ‘crossfire’ but widely assessed as torture or summary executions,” posted Mohammad Ali Arafat, Hasina’s information minister, on X on Wednesday (December 10).
Though politicians won’t fail to cease the political blame game, what is emerging is that Bangladesh hasn’t moved on from the extrajudicial killings and custodial torture of Hasina days.
Not just data from the Ain o Salish Kendra, other rights organisations like Dhaka-based Odhikar too flagged the continued extrajudicial killings during the Yunus regime.
Odhikar released a report saying 40 people had become victims to extrajudicial killings and 153 were lynched in post-Hasina Bangladesh till October 2025. The report said at least 281 people had been killed in political violence, reported news agency AFP.
In October, six international groups sent a letter to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, urging stronger action to stop human rights abuses.
Though Yunus set up an inquiry commission in August 2024 to probe cases of deaths and enforced disappearances during the Hasina regime, the present caretaker regime has failed to curb extrajudicial killings. For Bangladesh, be it Hasina or Yunus, it seems to be more of the same.
