Dhaka, Dec 24: Bangladesh’s Awami League on Wednesday alleged that deaths in jail and police custody have risen sharply across the country under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, turning “detention into a source of fear rather than protection.”
Highlighting a disturbing pattern, the party stated that people are being arrested alive and returned dead, with official explanations providing little clarity and even less accountability. What was meant to be a period of reform, it said, has instead exposed a dangerous breakdown in the state’s duty to protect those in its custody.
According to the Awami League, this is not an abstract human rights argument but a clear pattern of deaths, with its party activists and leaders repeatedly appearing among the victims.
“Many were detained in politically charged cases, held for extended periods, and denied proper medical care. Their deaths are routinely dismissed as illness or suicide, reinforcing the sense that custody has become a space where responsibility quietly ends.
“This is where political responsibility becomes unavoidable. The Yunus government came to power by selling hope, promising restraint, reform, and a clean break from past abuses. That hope has now been exposed as false,” the Awami League stated.
The party accused Yunus of not only failing to deliver change but of misleading the public by offering reassurance while allowing the same violence to continue under a different name.
“His government has chosen silence over accountability and denial over responsibility, creating an environment where abuse thrives without consequence. By refusing to intervene, order investigations, or enforce reform, Yunus has effectively normalised custodial death. What once provoked outrage is now treated as routine. In today’s Bangladesh, arrest no longer signals the protection of law; it signals exposure to a state that has abandoned its duty to keep detainees alive,” it added.
Citing numbers from over the last year, the Awami League mentioned that at least 119 people have died in prison custody, while 21 others died in police custody under the Yunus regime. During the same period, it said, 26 people were killed in extrajudicial actions, and 106 died in incidents related to political violence, arguing that the combined figures indicate a serious breakdown in Bangladesh authorities’ handling of detention and public order.
Emphasising that these deaths can no longer be dismissed as administrative lapses or isolated failures, the Awami League said, “They reflect political choices. By failing to intervene, investigate, or reform, the Yunus government has become complicit through inaction.”
IANS
