Human rights organization Odhikar has released a list of individuals who were extrajudicially killed by security forces in Dhaka and other areas on May 5 and 6, 2013, in connection with the Hefazat-e-Islam rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel, Dhaka.
On Monday, August 19, Odhikar published the list on its Facebook page.
The organization stated that in 2013, Odhikar conducted a fact-finding mission on the indiscriminate killings carried out by security forces and published a report mentioning the deaths of 61 people. As a result of publishing that report, the Awami League government filed cases against Odhikar’s then Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and the organization’s current Director A.S.M. Nasir Uddin Elan under Section 57 of the repressive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, 2006 (amended 2009).
Odhikar further mentioned that since 2013, the fascist Awami League government has extensively persecuted Odhikar and its leaders through repression, surveillance, harassment by authorities, and negative propaganda by pro-government media.
After more than a decade of judicial harassment, on September 14, 2023, Judge A.M. Zulfikar Hayat of the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal announced the verdict and sentenced Adilur Rahman Khan and A.S.M. Nasir Uddin Elan to two years in prison and a fine of 10,000 BDT under the ICT Act for publishing a truth-seeking report on extrajudicial killings. After spending 31 days in Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj, they were released from prison on October 15, 2023, when Justice Md. Emdadul Haque Azad of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court granted them bail.
Odhikar has called on the interim government to immediately form an independent investigation commission, led by a Supreme Court judge, to conduct an impartial investigation into the extrajudicial killings that took place on May 5 and 6, 2013, and bring the perpetrators to justice.
