United Nations member states yesterday urged Bangladesh to investigate rights violations by law enforcers, protect civil rights and ensure free and fair trials.

Democracy, election, labour and human rights issues among topics discussed

Why has the state failed to provide a safe space for them?

The government has not only curtailed freedom of expression and assembly, but it has also used state institutions to silence its critics and political opponents in a brutal manner.

Well-known civic rights activist Mizanur Rahman’s narration of his harrowing experience of being picked up by police and tortured under custody, published in this newspaper’s online version on June 15, gives us some disturbing snapshots of the unlawful actions of our law enforcement agencies.

The overall human rights situation in Bangladesh remained at an alarming level in the first six months of 2018 due to a sharp rise in cases of extra-judicial killings and custodial deaths, and a high number of cases of rapes and sexual assault of women across the country, human rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) says in its report.