C T Online Desk: United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) leader Michael Chakma, missing since April 2019, has been released from the secret detention centre known as Aynaghor and returned home.
Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, the lawyer who had filed a habeas corpus petition seeking his whereabouts, confirmed the matter on Wednesday.
Earlier, former military officer Brigadier General (dismissed) Abdullahil Aman Azmi and Supreme Court lawyer Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem returned to their homes on Tuesday morning after being released from captivity after eight years, according to related sources.
Families of political prisoners, secretly jailed under the recently ousted Sheikh Hasina’s rule, gathered in front of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence headquarters on Monday night and Tuesday, demanding the release of their loved ones.
In a 2023 report, Human Rights Watch said security forces in Bangladesh had committed over 600 enforced disappearances since 2009.
Although some individuals were later released, brought to court or reported dead following “gunfire exchanges with security forces,” nearly 100 people remained missing, HRW said.
