Staff Correspondent

Preliminary findings suggest two methods were followed for selecting targets for enforced disappearance, according to a report of The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.

"On this issue, we do not yet have sufficient data to reach a definitive conclusion, " it said.

A report titled 'Unfolding the Truth' has been submitted to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus recently. Retired Justice Mainul Islam Chowdhury is the chief of the five-member commission.
It found that target of the enforced disappearance victims was selected following two methods.

The first method appears involvement of a network-based system. In this system, detainees were often tortured into providing names of others, the report said, adding that those individuals were then picked up, tortured, and coerced to give additional names, creating a cascading chain of victims.

“We have multiple instances of such events, where one victim’s testimony leads to another's detention,” the report said.

Survivors of such process, upon realising that their coerced statements led to the disappearance of other innocent individuals, often felt profound guilt, it said.

The Commission report said one victim, for instance, justified his actions to himself by saying that he had assumed that the authorities would conduct a thorough background check on the individuals he named under duress.

He believed that anyone innocent would naturally be cleared off, it said.

It was only after his release that he discovered one of the individuals he had named was subsequently subjected to enforced disappearance and incarcerated in the same facility as his, the report said.

Overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, the victim dedicated himself to ensure the release of the individuals he had inadvertently implicated through legal channels, it said.

The Commission report said that the second method of target selection appears involvement of direct orders from politically connected or otherwise influential figures.

“We have documented instances of this process. For example, in the notorious seven-murder case in Narayanganj, the accused Tareque Sayeed Mohammad (former RAB 11 Commanding Officer) stated in his confessional statement under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that he had received the go-ahead signal from Ziaul Ahsan (the then RAB’s ADG Operations),” it said.

The enforced disappeared victim, Hummam Quader Chowdhury, recounted being told at the point of his release: “The Honourable Prime Minister is giving you a second chance, but there are certain conditions. You must refrain from politics, leave the country, and return only when the situation improves. Understand that the Honourable Prime Minister is granting you a second chance in life.”

The report added, "While these examples provide some insights into the mechanisms of targeting, further data are required to draw comprehensive conclusions about this aspect of enforced disappearances."