TDS Desk:

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned the Yunus government’s hard-won progress in reforming Bangladeshi state institutions could be lost, if it does not implement swift and structural changes to prevent any repression by future governments.

After over 15 years of arbitrary use of security forces by the Awami League regime to suppress dissent, an emerging pattern of unnecessary arrests and reprisal violence underscore the need for long-term systemic reforms, HRW said in its report published online on Wednesday morning Dhaka time.

Manly political activists have already started exploiting legal provisions, which allow vague and overly broad charges, to target individuals likely unrelated to the crime in question, HRW has learnt during interviews with plaintiffs.