Golam Mujtaba Dhruba
Golam Mujtaba Dhruba is a human rights defender and a journalist working for the online news portal bdnews24.com. He has reported on the killings of secular bloggers, LGBTI activists and human rights defenders in Bangladesh, and covers topics such as the death penalty, religious extremism and human rights violations committed against people in police custody.
Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Bangladesh endure judicial harassment, arbitrary arrest, fabricated charges, abduction, physical attacks, torture and extrajudicial killings. Human rights violations against HRDs are committed by both state and non-state actors including corporations, impunity remains one of the most serious issues of concern, particularly as fatal attacks on human rights defenders and journalsits become increasingly common.
Police and armed gangs have assaulted dozens of journalists in recent years. In 2012 alone, three journalists were murdered and 19 were physically attacked. Female journalists have been particularly vulnerable: many of them have been sexually harassed and assaulted, including at the workplace. In the vast majority of cases, these violations went unpunished. In the first eight months of 2015, four bloggers were killed. One of the victims had previously expressed fear of an attack, and said his reports of threats were ignored by police.
