The rites of violent regime change can be hard, and imitative. Disturbing reports filtering out of Muhammad Yunus-led Bangladesh may mirror some of the alleged “House of Mirrors” excesses that also made the signature of the ousted Sheikh Hasina Wazed regime.

Over 12,000 people arrested in Bangladesh since the interim government took charge on August 8 are enduring inhuman conditions in jail and looking at indefinite detention, with most lower courts declining to entertain bail pleas or rejecting them summarily.

Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, arrested on November 25 on sedition charges, had his bail petition rejected a second time by a Chittagong court on Thursday.

A legal strategist for Das told The Telegraph that the back-to-back bail rejections would make it easier for his client to approach the high court.

“But it will take months — at least five to six months — for it to come up for hearing,” said the lawyer, himself named in two murder cases.

Those who spoke to this newspaper are not being named for reasons of their security and that of their families.

Clamping murder charges on politicians, bureaucrats, civil society members, activists and journalists perceived to be close to the Sheikh Hasina regime has become routine on the watch of Peace Nobel winner Yunus.

“Police headquarters have put the number of arrests since Hasina’s fall at more than 12,000,” said a veteran journalist, slapped with murder charges following which his bank account was frozen. “This number excludes the arrests made on account of petty or serious crimes.”

He added that the actual number of arrests would be much higher. “Most of those arrested have been charged with murder along with hundreds of others named but not arrested, and several hundred unknown (unnamed) people. The number of unknown accused runs into lakhs, which means that anyone can (later) be booked on these
murder charges.”

During Hasina’s rule, too, hundreds had vanished after being abducted by her security forces, according to The New York Times, some of them targeted over trivial matters such as a social media post.

Many of the victims were killed. The rest were shut in an underground military detention centre, pushed to the edge of insanity and death — often for years on end — but assiduously prevented from death itself. That prison was code-named the House of Mirrors, the NYT reported.

Conversations with lawyers and journalists in Bangladesh suggested that most of the current prisoners were apprehensive about approaching the high court since a rejection there would make the process of further appeals slow and cumbersome.

“Chinmoy’s case is being tracked by the world community, but that’s not true of most others,” said a former colleague of journalists Farzana Rupa and Shakil Ahmed, who used to work with Ekattor TV.

Rupa and Shakil, slapped with four and five murder charges, respectively, have been behind bars for around four months with their bail pleas rejected by the lower courts several times.

“First, it’s difficult to get lawyers as there is intimidation.... Then, the lower courts are not giving bail. Their lawyers didn’t get a single opportunity to prove their innocence. Their counsels are wary of approaching the high court,” the journalist said.

A similar dilemma faces the lawyers of Mozammel Babu, chief editor and CEO of Ekattor TV, and Shyamal Dutta, editor of Bhorer Kagoj and former general secretary of the National Press Club. Both have serious health issues.

The Paris-headquartered Reporters Without Borders has urged the Yunus regime to release Shakil, Rupa, Babu, Dutta and 140-odd other journalists accused in murder cases.

There has not been any redress although Yunus had acknowledged in an interview that the murder charges against the journalists had been clamped hastily.

Multiple sources in Dhaka’s journalistic fraternity and the Yunus administration said the arrested journalists are being detained in inhuman conditions and denied basic rights such as a weekly phone call, proper food or medical care.

“Rupa was kept in solitary confinement for a long period; she lost around 20 pounds.... Babu Bhai and Shyamalda are not getting proper treatment,” a source said.

A source in the prison department said that with the inmate count in 68 jails having crossed 80,000 – about double the capacity – facilities were bound to suffer.

“There is an unwritten order from the top to make life difficult for these people,” said the source, referring to allegations that some old and ailing inmates were being forced to sleep on the floor in the winter cold.

An exiled Awami League MP echoed the allegation: “At least eight of our party leaders died in prison.... They were fit when they were picked up.”

At least two people close to Das said the monk had taken ill inside jail where he had some time ago been lodged in solitary confinement in a cell meant for death row prisoners.

“The principle of ‘bail is the rule, jail the exception’ does not hold in today’s Bangladesh.... The government had said at least twice that it would withdraw the spurious cases and even issued (general) notifications. But nothing happened,” said barrister Tania Amir, who agreed to be quoted.

She urged the United Nations to visit the prisons and see their condition.

A UN team is already in Bangladesh to go into the deaths caused during the anti-Hasina protests. Some reports say the government is not fully cooperating with the team or answering all its questions.