DHAKA: The security agencies in Bangladesh are holding hundreds of ‘unknown’ prisoners in the secret jails, a rights group has claimed.

The Human Rights Watch report, released days after the alleged abduction of a high-profile government critic, has said that the security agencies had detained hundreds of people including scores of opposition activists, many of whom have later been killed.

“The security agencies were removing people with “no regard” for the rule of law. Hundreds of people have been detained and held in secret locations since 2013, including at least 90 last year,” the report claimed.

“Bangladesh security forces appear to have a free hand in detaining people, deciding on their guilt or innocence, and determining their punishment, including whether they have the right to be alive,” Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director stated in the report.

“The disappearances are well-documented and reported, yet the government persists in this abhorrent practice with no regard for the rule of law,” he said.

Bangladesh home minister Asad-uz-Zaman Khan, however, rejected the allegations, saying the detentions were lawful, and accused HRW of spreading “propaganda”.

Among those detained are said to be the activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JI).