When Sheikh Hasina fled Dhaka in August 2024, millions of Bangladeshis thought the era of state-sponsored abductions was over. For fifteen years, state security forces operated secret detention sites—like the infamous Ayna Ghar (House of Mirrors)—where political dissidents, lawyers, and critics vanished without a trace. People thought the mass student-led movement had permanently ended that nightmare.
It didn't.
On July 19, 2026, Human Rights Watch sound the alarm on what appears to be the first documented enforced disappearance since the 2024 uprising. The target wasn't a prominent politician or a high-profile activist. It was Miraj Sheikh, a 30-year-old local fisherman from Mongla.
His disappearance isn't just an isolated tragedy for one family in southern Bangladesh. It reveals a chilling reality: deep-seated institutional habits inside state security agencies don't disappear just because the political leadership changes.
The Disappearance of Miraj Sheikh
On the night of April 10, 2026, Miraj Sheikh was sitting at a tea stall in Joymonir Ghol, near the Sundarbans forest. Eyewitnesses saw Coast Guard personnel detain him and carry him away on a speedboat.
When his family rushed to the Coast Guard base in Digraj the next morning, officers told them Miraj was away "on an operation" and asked them to return later. When they came back that afternoon, the story shifted completely. Officers claimed Miraj had never been brought in. Ten days later, a man identifying himself as a Coast Guard member came back to the tea stall, unlocked Miraj’s parked motorcycle, and drove off with it—only for Coast Guard personnel to return the vehicle the next day.
Miraj’s father took the fight to the High Court. On July 12, 2026, the court issued a writ of habeas corpus, ordering security agencies to locate Miraj and bring him before the bench within 15 days. Despite eyewitness testimony and court orders, Coast Guard officials publicly deny holding him.
This script is painfully familiar. It matches the exact operational pattern used by law enforcement agencies during the Awami League years.
The Structural Trap in Bangladesh's Legal Reforms
When the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge in August 2024, it made bold commitments to human rights. Bangladesh signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. An official fact-finding commission was created to investigate historic abuses.
That commission uncovered staggering numbers: 1,569 recorded cases of enforced disappearance between 2009 and 2024. At least 251 people never returned and are presumed dead. The commission explicitly noted that almost every secret detention site contained purpose-built interrogation facilities designed for systematic torture.
To prevent this from ever happening again, the interim administration introduced landmark measures like the National Human Rights Commission Ordinance in late 2025. This gave independent oversight bodies the authority to inspect detention facilities unannounced without needing a court order.
Then political shifts altered the trajectory.
Following elections in February 2026, the newly elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government let those protective ordinances expire. Instead of strengthening independent oversight, the new administration introduced legislation that strips the National Human Rights Commission of its power to independently investigate state security forces. If a citizen vanishes today, the commission's only recourse is to request a report from the very police or security agency accused of the crime.
Allowing police to police themselves has never worked, and it won't work now.
Why Old Tactics Are Creeping Back
Security institutions like the Coast Guard, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and the Detective Branch spent nearly two decades operating above the law. Accountability was non-existent. When officers face no real risk of prosecution, old habits quickly resurface.
Human rights advocate Meenakshi Ganguly from Human Rights Watch put it bluntly: "Thousands of people were subjected to enforced disappearance during Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule, and this latest case shows that without genuine reforms they can happen again."
Without strict, independent oversight, security personnel revert to using secret detentions to settle local disputes, cover up botched operations, or bypass the formal judicial system.
Actionable Steps to Prevent the Fall Back into Abuse
Protecting civil liberties requires concrete legislative action, not verbal promises. For Bangladesh to permanently end state abductions, the government must take immediate, binding steps:
- Restore Independent Oversight: Amend the current human rights legislation to reinstate the National Human Rights Commission's power to conduct unannounced inspections of all detention centers, including military and Coast Guard facilities.
- Comply with Judicial Orders: The Ministry of Home Affairs must enforce the High Court’s July 12 directive, holding the Coast Guard leadership directly accountable for accounting for Miraj Sheikh's whereabouts.
- Criminalize Enforced Disappearances: Formally integrate the provisions of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance into national penal codes, establishing clear criminal penalties for state agents involved in secret detentions.
- Protect Eyewitnesses and Families: Establish an independent witness protection program for individuals testifying against security personnel in disappearance cases.
