After more than five years, the family of Michael Chakma, one of Bangladesh’s “disappeared”, held a funeral service for him, certain they would never see him again. Last week, the 45-year-old was one of a handful of people released from detention in the aftermath of the student uprising which led to the dramatic collapse of former prime minister Sheihk Hasina’s government.
Chakma, an Indigenous rights activist who went “missing” after being snatched off the streets near his home in April 2019, said he endured mental and physical torture during his captivity in spaces so confined it felt like “a grave”, in a clandestine prison allegedly operated by the military intelligence directorate (DGFI).
