690 escaped prisoners still at large in Bangladesh: IG Prisons

Dhaka, Aug 18 (IANS) At least 690 prisoners who escaped from various prisons during the July uprising in 2024 are yet to be caught, local media reported on Tuesday quoting statements made by Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Mohammad Motaher Hossain.

According to the IG, the prison authorities don’t have any records or traces of 166 of the 690 prisoners, Dhaka Tribune reported.

He noted that a total of 2,247 prisoners escaped in 2024 after several prisons were breached.

He also informed that out of 826 prisoners who escaped from Narsingdi District Jail, authorities were not able to trace the records of 166 of them.

Motaher said that nine suspected militant prisoners escaped, of which six have been caught, and three are still at large.

“Under the current circumstances, it is not possible to keep militant prisoners separately,” he said.

“Our goal was not merely to operate prisons, but to lay the foundation for a modern correctional service where security, correction and rehabilitation of inmates, as well as the professional dignity, skills and welfare of prison officials and employees, receive equal importance,” he added.

According to the Dhaka Tribune report, Motaher said that since June 24, Mymensingh District Jail has been operating as a “cashless” prison, noting that greater scope for transparency in prison management has been created with this initiative.

In June, a report stated that Bangladesh’s prisons have increasingly deteriorated into a deeply discriminatory state mechanism.

Within this system, imprisonment for those with wealth and power translates into a “life of pampered luxury” while for ordinary, poor citizens, it amounts to a “living hell”.

Although institutional operations across the country’s 72 prisons are carried out under the humane and reformist slogan ‘not a jail, but a correction centre’, the reality on the ground tells a different story, another report stated.

Citing human rights activists and prison experts, international press agency Pressenza noted that correctional facilities are designed as “controlled, rigorous, and egalitarian spaces of rehabilitation for those who break societal laws”. In contrast, Bangladeshi prisons are influenced by “personal connections, political identity, and financial leverage” rather than institutional rules.

–IANS

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