MSF expresses concern over deterioration of HR in BD

The human rights situation in Bangladesh has deteriorated alarmingly under the interim government, with widespread allegations of media suppression, attacks on religious minorities, extrajudicial killings, political reprisals and total law enforcement breakdown raising fears of state failure.

According to the Human Rights Report for the month of June by Mandhaka Sanskriti Foundation (MSF), violence against women and children, mob brutality, gang-led criminality and administrative inaction have created a state of lawlessness that continues to erode public trust. From September 2024 to June 2025, at least 163 people were killed and 312 injured in 253 mob lynching incidents. In June alone, 41 such attacks occurred leaving 10 dead and 47 critically injured. 

The situation escalated dramatically following the mass uprising on August 5 last year that led to the fall of the Awami League government. In the immediate aftermath, riots erupted in several prisons, culminating in the escape of 2,240 inmates from five correctional facilities. While 1,520 fugitives have been recaptured, 721 remain at large. During these jailbreaks, attackers looted 94 firearms including shotguns and Chinese rifles, 20 of which remain unrecovered.

Criminal gangs now dominate the streets and cyberspace under aliases like 'Teen Age Tornado', 'Patali Group', 'Dark Strikers', 'Red Volcano', 'Level High Group', 'Vaiba Lou' and others. These groups operate with near impunity engaging in crimes ranging from extortion and drug trafficking to armed robbery and harassment of women. Videos of brutal torture, public beatings and machete-wielding daylight robberies are frequently circulated on social media as instruments of fear and intimidation.

Sexual violence remains rampant. From August 2024 to March 2025, 216 rape cases, 17 gang rapes and 27 attempted rapes were reported in Dhaka alone. MSF recorded 63 rape cases, 17 gang rapes and 4 rape-murders including seven disabled women and girls in June 2025. The gang rape of an eight-year-old in Magura has provoked national outrage. In another shocking incident, Jubo Dal activists stormed a hotel in Mohakhali and assaulted two women.

A woman was harassed in broad daylight while shopping at a roadside vendor in Mirpur-10. Robbery and molestation on moving buses have become disturbingly frequent.

Public outrage has swelled over the proliferation of mob violence, often perpetrated in the name of 'justice'.

 Victims include professionals from all walks of life including politicians, law enforcement officers, doctors, lawyers, teachers and ordinary citizens. Incidents have involved public beatings, forced humiliation such as garlanding victims with shoes and summary punishments broadcast online. Former Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda was harassed by a mob. In another instance, two Iranian nationals were beaten up by a mob in Bashundhara residential area, while a Police Inspector and two members of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch were injured in separate attacks including a gunfight with drug dealers in Paltan.

Human rights defenders believe that the government's reluctance and the ineffectiveness of law enforcement agencies are encouraging such crimes. "The government has lacked the courage to overcome the post-August 5 instability," said Nur Khan Liton, former chief of Ain o Salish Kendra and noted human rights activist. "State actors are making provocative statements rather than preventing crime. When mobs are described as 'outcomes of anger' even after ten months, it shows the state has abandoned the rule of law."