Dhaka — A bench of Bangladesh’s High Court has directed law enforcement agencies to locate a fisherman from Bagerhat district who has been missing since April, after his family alleged he was taken away by Coast Guard personnel and never returned.
The July 12 order, issued by Justices Ahmed Sohel and Fatema Anwar, came in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by Mostafa Sheikh, the father of 30-year-old Miraj Sheikh. The court instructed authorities to trace Miraj, report on his safety and whereabouts, and produce him before the bench within 15 working days — a deadline that falls on July 27. Nine respondents were named in the petition, including the home secretary, the Coast Guard’s director general, the inspector general of police and the chief of the Rapid Action Battalion.
What witnesses say happened
According to the petition and accounts gathered by rights investigators, Miraj — a fisherman who also rented out his motorcycle for extra income — returned home on the evening of April 10 after a day on the water in the Sundarbans. He is said to have received several calls from an unfamiliar number before leaving the house again. Around 7 p.m., relatives and neighbours in the Joymonir Ghol area of Mongla upazila reported seeing him picked up near a roadside tea stall by two men in plain clothes.
His wife, Mukta Khatun, has said she saw him being taken toward Mongla aboard a Coast Guard speedboat. Several residents of the area told journalists they witnessed the same scene, though most declined to be named publicly. Miraj’s motorcycle was left behind at the tea stall; the shop owner has said that on April 21, a man identifying himself as a Coast Guard member unlocked and removed the vehicle, and that it was returned by Coast Guard personnel the following day.
These accounts — from family members, neighbours and the tea stall owner — remain witness testimony rather than court-established fact, and are presented in the family’s petition and in statements to journalists and rights groups.
The family’s search and the Coast Guard’s response
Family members say that when they went to the Coast Guard office in Digraj, Mongla the day after Miraj disappeared, officers initially told them he was “on an operation” and asked them to come back later. When the family returned that afternoon, they were told he had never been brought in.
Over the following weeks, relatives filed a formal complaint, held a press conference and wrote to several government offices, but say they received no substantive response. That impasse led Mostafa Sheikh to file the habeas corpus petition that resulted in this month’s court order.
The Coast Guard has firmly denied any role in Miraj’s disappearance. Lieutenant Commander Mahbub Hossain, media officer for the force’s Western Zone, has told reporters on multiple occasions that the Coast Guard holds no information about Miraj and was not involved in detaining him. As of this report, authorities have not publicly disclosed the outcome of any internal inquiry into the allegations.
Rights groups cite wider concerns
Human Rights Watch has described the case as, to its knowledge, the first alleged enforced disappearance reported in Bangladesh since the mass protests that forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from office in August 2024. The organisation has called on authorities to comply promptly with the High Court’s order and has linked the case to a broader rollback of disappearance-prevention safeguards under the current government.
An inquiry commission set up during the 2024–2026 interim government documented 1,569 cases of enforced disappearance between 2009 and 2024, of which at least 251 people were never found — a record rights groups say fuelled the push for stronger legal safeguards after Hasina’s departure. In response, the interim administration introduced two ordinances: one establishing an independent National Human Rights Commission with power to inspect any detention site without prior court approval, and another specifically aimed at preventing and redressing enforced disappearances, including a pathway to refer cases to the International Crimes Tribunal.
Both ordinances lapsed after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party government took office following the February 2026 election. According to Human Rights Watch, the government has since proposed replacement legislation that would bar the Human Rights Commission from investigating allegations against security forces — a move that has drawn criticism from multiple rights organisations for weakening the commission’s independence from the executive.
Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said the recurrence of such a case pointed to entrenched practices within security agencies and urged the government to restore institutional safeguards and ensure accountability. It should be noted that these characterisations — of entrenched practice and institutional rollback — represent the assessment of Human Rights Watch and other rights bodies, not a finding by any Bangladeshi court.
Bangladesh formally joined the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in August 2024, a treaty obligation that requires states to criminalise enforced disappearance and to investigate and prosecute those responsible.
Broader context
The case surfaces amid continued international scrutiny of Bangladesh’s human rights record since the 2024 uprising. Rights groups pressed the newly elected government earlier this year to enact stronger protections for fundamental freedoms, and separately criticised the arrest of several individuals over social media posts critical of the administration. The government has not issued a detailed public rebuttal to these broader criticisms.
For now, the central, verified fact is narrower and more immediate: a court has ordered the state to find Miraj Sheikh and report on his condition by July 27. Whether that deadline resolves the case — or deepens the dispute between his family’s account and the Coast Guard’s denial — remains to be seen.
