Ahead of national elections - scheduled for January 2024 - there has been an escalating crackdown on the opposition, activists and dissenting voices in Bangladesh.
Since the beginning of 2023, the authorities have ramped up their targeting of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Thousands of fabricated cases have been filed against its supporters. Law enforcement officers have used these open cases as warrants to raid the homes of political opposition members in what appears to be overt political harassment and intimidation. Further, protests by the opposition have been met with restrictions and excessive force, including tear gas and live ammunition.
The government has also escalated its harassment of human rights defenders. The authorities accelerated hearings against activists Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan of human rights group Odhikar and sentenced them to two years jail. They had faced ten years of judicial harassment for a 2013 report on extrajudicial killings and a smear campaign for their work.
The authorities have also increasingly attempted to silence the media through censorship and the arbitrary detention and legal harassment of journalists. Critical media outlets have been shut down, vilified and attacked and journalists and their families in exile have been targeted. There has also been impunity in cases of killings and abductions of journalists.
The draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) – a law that contains overbroad and vague provisions granting the authorities extensive powers to police the online space – often used against online critics and journalists, is being replaced by a new Cyber Security Act which retains most of the DSA’s repressive offences.
The government continues to use enforced disappearances as a tool to suppress political movements and silence dissenting voices, creating a climate of fear in the country.
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