After more than five years, the family of Michael Chakma, one of Bangladesh’s “disappeared”, held a funeral service for him, certain they would never see him again. Last week, the 45-year-old was one of a handful of people released from detention in the aftermath of the student uprising which led to the dramatic collapse of former prime minister Sheihk Hasina’s government.
Chakma, an Indigenous rights activist who went “missing” after being snatched off the streets near his home in April 2019, said he endured mental and physical torture during his captivity in spaces so confined it felt like “a grave”, in a clandestine prison allegedly operated by the military intelligence directorate (DGFI).
Chakma is among hundreds of people killed or detained during Hasina’s regime, which faced criticism for its increasing authoritarianism. He was among three political prisoners released after the student protests which forced Hasina from power last week and saw the appointment of an interim government headed by entrepreneur and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Chakma says he had lost all hope of ever seeing his family or daylight again.
“My family assumed I was dead and conducted all religious rituals for a funeral in my absence,” Chakma tells the Guardian. “My return is as shocking to me as it is miraculous for them. It truly feels like a resurrection.
“This ‘afterlife’ still unnerves me from time to time. I suffer from nightmares and mental breakdowns, and I’m often terrified by sounds. I can’t sleep; everything seems so scary to me,” he adds.
When Chakma was thrown blindfolded into a car more than five years ago, he was told he was being detained for questioning over several cases filed against him. “We are from the administration,” they told him.
In the early months of his disappearance, a police official told the media that he might be in hiding, evading arrest due to the charges against him. During his captivity, Chakma was moved around a few times. Conditions were grim: tiny, poorly ventilated cells devoid of natural light and sounds from the outside world.
“The only sounds were the incessant whirring of fans and the muffled cries of fellow detainees from nearby cells. I couldn’t see how many of us there were, but the sounds of weeping and despair gave me a sense of the numbers,” he says.
He says he was repeatedly interrogated about his criticisms of Hasina’s ruling party, the Awami League (AL). “They kept asking me why I criticise the Awami League government in my social media, they said AL is the government and the government is the state. Therefore no one should criticise the actions of AL or Sheikh Hasina,” Chakma says. “They equated my party’s criticism of the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord with treason.”
This accord, designed to settle an Indigenous land conflict dating back to British colonial rule, is viewed by Hasina as one of her groundbreaking achievements, and was often touted as Nobel prize-worthy by her supporters. In a press conference before her ousting, Hasina said: “After the peace accord, not only in my country but many Nobel laureates internationally have written for me. But I never went lobbying for it. What I gained or did not, doesn’t bother me.” She accused Yunus of taking undue credit for poverty reduction in Bangladesh, saying, “I alleviated poverty, reducing it from 41.6% to 18.7%. Yet, he takes the credit.”
While he was in detention, Chakma says he was treated as a terrorism suspect and questioned about hidden weapons. “I was scared, but I told the truth. I never carried any guns, so I couldn’t give them any location.
“Once they took me to one of the interrogation rooms blindfolded and made me sit on a chair and cuffed my hands and legs to the chair.
“They tied me with a belt-like rope. One officer ominously informed me that they would electrocute me and that I would be burned to ashes in a second if I failed to answer their questions,” he says.
“The tortures weren’t confined to just the times I was questioned,” he adds. During the sweltering summer months, guards would turn off the fans, while in winter, they increased the fan speed. “Their methods were petty and relentless. They’d jolt you awake if they noticed you sleeping peacefully, and they’d withhold meals if you were visibly hungry.
“I often begged the guard who escorted me to the toilet to just shoot and kill me, as I saw no hope of seeing my family or daylight again.”
Chakma was released on 5 August, alongside two others, both of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami political party: Abdullahil Aman Azmi, son of a former Jamaat chief and convicted war criminal, and barrister Ahmad Bin Quasem (Arman), son of a Jamaat leader.
Sanjida Islam, a founder of Mayer Daak (Mothers’ Call), a group that supports families of people who have disappeared, has been campaigning for the release of her brother for more than a decade. On Sunday the group held a vigil in Dhaka, calling for speedy trials for the people involved in these disappearances.
“Since the ousting and fleeing of Hasina, three people have been released from the secret detention centres. There are hundreds more. The number is really not fixed. According to our estimates, since 2009, more than 750 people have forcibly disappeared. A few of them have been released and some have been killed. But we still don’t know about the majority of the abducted people, including my brother.
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“Many new faces showed up in the protests and in the past, we did not know their family members were missing. They feared for their lives and threatened to be abducted during the tyrant rule of Hasina and that’s why they did not protest for the release of their abducted family,” she says.
“Like me, there are hundreds of sisters, daughters, wives and mothers who want to know what happened to their brothers, fathers, husbands and sons. They want justice and punishment for these criminal military generals.”
Another local group, Odhikar, says over the past 15 years, 704 people have fallen victim to enforced disappearance. While some have returned home, the bodies of others have been found, often showing signs of torture. It’s thought 150 individuals remain unaccounted for, not including those who went missing during the student-led protests that began last month.
Nur Khan Liton, a human rights activist who survived an abduction attempt in 2014, says the government must prioritise the release of individuals detained in secret prisons and conduct investigations. “People are terrified to criticise the government because of the fear instilled by the previous administration,” he says. He stressed the importance of holding those responsible accountable to rebuild trust within the country. “Otherwise, the future will be as bleak as it was under the former government,” he adds.
Hasina’s government ignored appeals from families, as well as inquiries from the supreme court, the UN committee against torture and NGOs such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
In December 2021, the US imposed human rights-related sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh’s elite police unit, and seven of its former and current officers, due to their roles in numerous enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
Chakma acknowledged the role of international and external support. “At the time, I didn’t realise it, but I believe I am alive today because of the extensive campaign my friends, human rights activists, and journalists waged in my support. I fear many others haven’t returned from that hell on earth. I just hope the campaigning continues so that no one else has to endure such a grim fate.”
Known for speaking out against military abuses of Indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Chakma remains apprehensive. “I am still scared for my safety and for those around me. We live in uncertain times where anything could happen to any of us, and I’m unsure how long I can stay safe,” he says.
Tasneem Khalil, a scholar who fled the country after being briefly detained by the security forces, adds: “The situation is very fluid in Bangladesh. The interim government is struggling to deal with the law and order situation. Definitely, security and defence sectors need to be cleaned up as soon as possible but that’s not happening yet. Hasina’s Awami League is going to regroup. It should be stopped and her assets in the state machinery should be punished.
“If reforms are not done, and democratic government and human rights are not established or they are not the top priority of the interim and the coming government, we might see abductions, extrajudicial killings, again.”
Sakhawat Hossain, the country’s home affairs adviser in the interim government, did not respond to requests for comment.