UN urged to probe alleged disappearances in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — New York-based Human Rights Watch is urging the United Nations to lead an independent investigation into the alleged disappearances of government critics and others at the hands of security forces in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi and global human rights groups have long raised such allegations, which have been  denied by the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In a report Monday, Human Rights Watch listed 86 people including some government critics who it said were victims of enforced disappearance and remain missing, The group mainly blamed the country’s elite anti-crime force, the Rapid Action Battalion. Calls seeking comment from the battalion were not immediately returned.