Ottawa, Jan 7 (IANS) A leading international advocacy group has raised grave concerns over a surge in extrajudicial killings across Bangladesh under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.
Citing various media reports, Canada-based 'Global Centre for Democratic Governance (GCDG) stated that at least 85 individuals have been subjected to extrajudicial execution since September 8, 2024, while human rights observers believe the actual number is significantly higher.
The organisation alleged that as the “unelected” Yunus regime continues to extend its tenure, reports of extrajudicial killings have been rising in Bangladesh.
“With the government exercising near-total control over the press, many of these cases are underreported or go entirely unreported. Journalists who dare to investigate or publish such stories face grave consequences: arrests, job losses, revocation of press accreditation, and violent attacks on newsrooms. Some reports are later removed under pressure and erasure of truth, enforced by fear,” the GCDG stated.
The organisation alleged that the Yunus-led interim government, having never been elected, operates without accountability to the people and ignores or dismisses the serious allegations surrounding the extrajudicial killings across the country.
“Every instance of extrajudicial killing must be subject to an impartial investigation. Those responsible, regardless of rank or status, must face justice. The culture of impunity must end,” it added
The GCDG urgently called upon national and international human rights organisations, as well as all global institutions committed to justice, to launch independent inquiries into extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh and hold perpetrators to account. Asserting that silence amounts to complicity, it said, the time had come for the world to act.
Earlier in December 2025, a leading human rights organisation in Bangladesh highlighted widespread rights abuses across the country, including mob violence, extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, minority persecution, killings in political violence, and suppression of press freedom.
In its latest report, Dhaka-based Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) revealed that "mob terrorism" has increased at an alarming rate throughout 2025.
As per the findings, mob violence claimed 197 lives from January to December in comparison to 128 deaths last year.
Since the Yunus-led interim government assumed office in 2024, the report said, at least 293 people have been killed in mob violence.
Bangladesh has been gripped by escalating human rights abuses and persistent attacks on minorities, particularly the Hindu community, under the Yunus-led interim government.
--IANS
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