CAGE brings survivors of secret detention together in Dhaka to call for equal justice for all

Dhaka, 29 October 2026 — A retired army general who was held in secret for almost eight years under the last government joined Islamic scholars, a human rights defender and a journalist at a conference in Dhaka today, organised by the London-based human rights organisation CAGE International, to call for equal justice before the law for people of every opinion.

Lieutenant General (retd) Abdullahil Amaan Azmi was taken from his home in Dhaka in August 2016 and was not released until August 2024. He recalled the hardships of his years in detention and gave thanks to Allah for his return. Generations of Bangladeshis, he said, must be brought to understand that their ultimate goal is the hereafter, not this world; with that awareness, people would think many times before committing injustice, and injustice would decline.

Also giving testimony were Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, who spent more than ten years in prison from 2013; Maulana Mir Idris, a leader of Hefazat-e-Islam; and Mufti Harun Izhar, arrested in Chattogram in 2021, who placed particular emphasis on legal support for people in detention and urged everyone to work together to provide it.

Their accounts follow CAGE International's report Out of the Shadow of Hasina, published in February 2026, which examined how the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009, the Digital Security Act 2018, the Anti-Terrorism Tribunal and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were used against dissent between 2009 and 2024. The report records more than 2,500 cases filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act in that period, and attributes more than 1,200 extrajudicial killings and 600 enforced disappearances to the RAB. It called for truth and reconciliation mechanisms, the abolition of the Anti-Terrorism Act and its tribunal, and the dismantling of the RAB.

In a second session, on what needs to change, the human rights defender Nur Khan Liton, a member of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, described abuses under the previous government, including the persecution of Muslims and false cases, and said he hoped collective effort could bring them to an end. The journalist Abu Sufian of Daily Amar Desh said all journalists must stand against every injustice and every enforced disappearance, at all times, because people of every opinion have the right to equal justice. They were joined by the campaigner Sher Muhammad, who works with the families of the disappeared, General Azmi and Maulana Mir Idris.

Muhammad Rabbani, Managing Director of CAGE International, moderated both sessions and set out the conference's aims and CAGE's plans for its work on Bangladesh. He reminded the audience that the country's Prime Minister, Tarique Rahman, was jailed in 2007 and has said he was tortured in custody; that his family and party attribute the death of his younger brother to what he suffered in custody; and that his mother, the former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was imprisoned and then confined to her home until 2024. "That is why we speak, and will speak, against every injustice, for everyone," Mr Rabbani said. "We believe the right to equal justice belongs to all."

He added: "We heard today what happens when a state's security machinery answers to no one. The safeguards that would stop it have to be written into law: habeas corpus, no confession taken under torture, the right to know the charge, and a fair trial. And these principles have to be applied equally for everyone, whatever their political beliefs or religious leanings, including people connected to the former government who are in custody today. Anyone found guilty through a fair and transparent process should be held to account."

CAGE International will publish recordings of the speeches, and will take what was said today to lawyers, academics, journalists and international human rights bodies outside Bangladesh, particularly in the English-speaking world, so that the voices of those who were held are heard beyond the country. It is asking families, lawyers and campaigners in Bangladesh to bring it cases that would benefit from international exposure, or where engagement from a foreign organisation could make a difference, through the media contact below. And it has offered to work with those already organising in Bangladesh on a more coordinated effort against repression, whoever its target.

CAGE will continue to work from overseas, in support of the survivors, campaigners and journalists who have documented these abuses in Bangladesh for years.

Notes to editors

1. Out of the Shadow: Equal Justice Before the Law in Bangladesh was held at Hotel Sarina, Banani, Dhaka, on 29 October 2026. It was CAGE International's first conference in Bangladesh.
2. Speakers. Testimony: Lieutenant General (retd) Abdullahil Amaan Azmi; Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani; Mufti Harun Izhar; Maulana Mir Idris. What needs to change: Mr Nur Khan Liton, human rights defender and member of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances; Mr Abu Sufian, journalist, Daily Amar Desh; Mr Sher Muhammad, human rights campaigner; Lieutenant General (retd) Azmi; Maulana Mir Idris. Both sessions were moderated by Muhammad Rabbani.
3. In February 2026 CAGE International published Out of the Shadow of Hasina, in English and Bangla, on how counter-terrorism law and the security forces were used between 2009 and 2024 to silence dissent. It is available here.
4. CAGE International is a human rights organisation based in London. For more than twenty years it has documented arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture and the misuse of anti-terrorism law, and worked with the people affected and their families. It takes no side between Bangladesh's parties or movements.
5. Photographs from the conference are free for editorial use, credited "CAGE International". Short video clips of the speakers are available on request from 30 October.
6. Press karsen@cage.ngo

​