DHAKA: Nearly 200 Bangladeshis abducted by security forces during the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina are still missing, a commission tasked with investigating cases of enforced disappearances said on Tuesday.

Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighboring India in August as protesters in a student-led uprising flooded the streets of the capital Dhaka, bringing a dramatic end to her iron-fisted tenure.

His government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds more.

A commission of inquiry set up by the interim government that now rules the country said five people were released from secret detention centers after Hasina’s ouster, but many more remain missing.

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“There is no trace of at least 200 people. We are trying to locate them,” said commissioner Noor Khan.

The commission said it identified at least eight secret detention centers in and around Dhaka, some with cells as small as 90 x 120 centimeters.

It was stated that there were engravings on the walls of these cells, showing that the people in the cell kept a tally of the number of days they were detained.

A commissioner said there were efforts by unnamed law enforcement officials after Hasina’s ouster to erase evidence of these secret detention centers.

Commissioners said the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) police unit was blamed for most disappearances brought to their attention.

RAB was sanctioned by Washington along with seven of her senior officials in 2021 in response to reports that Hasina was guilty of some of the worst rights abuses committed during her rule.

Commission chairman Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury said institutional collapses in the government and judiciary also allowed an environment of impunity to flourish under Hasina.

“They used law enforcement for their own agenda and political gain, not for the public good,” he said.

The commission was established by the interim government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Younis as part of its efforts to implement far-reaching democratic reforms.

Yunus has previously said he inherited a “completely collapsed” system of public administration that needs a comprehensive overhaul to prevent a return to autocracy in the future.