The commission instituted by the interim government to investigate into incidents of enforced disappearances during the ousted regime today said they were now studying cases of 300 victims who are yet to return. 

“The investigation regarding 300 victims of enforced disappearances who are yet to return is going on,” chairman of the commission retired High Court judge Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury told a media briefing at the commission’s Gulshan office here.

He said the commission so far received 1,752 complaints of enforced disappearance and completed initial scrutiny of some 1,000 reviewing related documents and evidence.

Chowdhury said they also recorded statements of 280 complainants who testified before the commission in person alongside depositions of 45 officers representing law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

He said police, meanwhile, informed the commission that 140 people were pushed into Bangladesh from India after August 5, 2024 as the commission earlier asked Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) sector commanders and bordering districts’ police supers to provide information of such cases.

Chowdhury said the commission awaited detailed formation from BGB and police for its own investigation further on the missing people.

He, however, said according to the commission information at least one missing person named Mohammad Rahmat Ullah of Dhamrai was pushed back to Bangladesh through the Gomastapur border in Chapainawabganj district.

Chowdhury said the foreign ministry provided the commission a list of 1,067 Bangladeshis detained in various Indian prisons in the last two and a half years.

“The commission examines if the list carry name of any missing person, treated as victim of disappearance,” he said.

The Commission Chairman said they visited the secret detention centres of the DGIE, CTTC and RAB in Dhaka Bogura, Narayanganj, Rahsjahi and Chattogram immediately after being informed of those and asked the authorities concerned to keep those intact.   

The government on August 27 last formed a five-member inquiry commission to identify and find the people who were forcibly disappeared by various intelligence and law enforcement agencies between January 1, 2010, and August 5, 2024.

Retired Judge Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli, rights activist Noor Khan, BRAC University teacher Nabila Idris and rights activist Sazzad Hossain, were present at the briefing.