The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) is greatly relieved to learn of the release on bail of Ms. Nusrat Shahrin Raka recently. It also takes the opportunity to thank all the legal, rights and humanitarian groups that helped the release of Ms. Nusrat, affording her to join her three infant children and her family she missed for nearly six months.
Ms. Nusrat, along with her three minor children, was arrested from her house in early October last year. The notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) which arrested the homemaker, hinted in a Press Release on October 5, 2021 that her detention was in retaliation for her relationship with Dr. Kanak Sarwar, her brother and a dissident journalist now living in the US. Dr. Sarwar is also a Advisory Board member at CHRD Bangladesh.
On December 10, 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on RAB and some of its former and current officials for serious human rights violations that included illegal detention, torture, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Joining the chorus with other rights groups, CHRD Bangladesh had issued a statement on October 6, 2021 protesting the persecution of Ms. Nusrat and demanding her immediate release.
The problems for Ms. Nusrat and her brother Dr. Kanak Sarwar, may be far from over. The draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) in Bangladesh makes it an illegal and punishable offence for criticizing the Prime Minister, her family members and her administration. Hundreds are groaning in custody under the DSA, some succumbing to police and RAB torture. The brother-sister duo has multiple “sedition” cases in the courts of Bangladesh, where justice is dispensed at the whims and fancies of the ruling fascist authority.
CHRD Bangladesh continues to appeal for justice for Ms. Nusrat and her brother Kanak Sarwar, as well as for all other suffering people in Bangladesh.
The Coalition also appeals to the consciousness of the whole world to help Bangladesh return to justice, democracy and the rule of law by urgently holding fair and participatory elections under a local or international neutral caretaker administration.