On December 30, 2024, German media outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) published an article on Bangladesh titled "Bangladesh: Are human rights eroding under Muhammad Yunus?", written by Tasmiah Ahmed, a Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyer and journalist.

In the article, Tasmiah, who now portrays herself as a 'human rights advocate,' expresses concern about alleged human rights violations in Bangladesh, particularly in light of recent developments.

However, Tasmiah's recent shift to championing human rights appears to be at odds with her earlier statements and actions.

On August 4, 2024, just a day before the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Tasmiah had referred to student protesters as "terrorists." Her comment came amid violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement, which resulted in the deaths of 94 people—mostly from gunfire by police and pro-Hasina cadres.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Tasmiah dismissed the protesters’ grievances and focused on condemning the attacks on government buildings.

In an interview with India Today on the same day, as student protests were intensifying and students were being shot, Tasmiah downplayed the protests' legitimacy.

"We have seen a lot of arson attacks on various establishments, including the Bangabandhu Medical University, CMM court, AC land office, DC office, Awami League party office, UNO houses, and also on journalists," she stated.

"We journalists also arranged a human chain program to show solidarity with the students on the ground and to convey that the government is ready to fulfill all their demands."

She continued, attributing the violence to "other groups" with their own agendas. "These are not students. The ones causing terrorism on the ground are political parties exploiting the emotions of students to achieve their own ends," she claimed.

However, in her December 30 article, Tasmiah again resorted to a misleading portrayal of events.

She wrote about a violent incident in southeastern Bangladesh's Bandarban district, where 17 houses belonging to the Christian Tripura community were reportedly set on fire on Christmas Eve.

Tasmiah framed the incident as an attack on minorities, but local media reports suggest that the fire was the result of a land dispute involving supporters of Benazir Ahmed, the former police chief under Sheikh Hasina, which also involved members of the Christian minority community.

Tasmiah's inconsistent portrayal of events raises questions about her objectivity and the reliability of her recent claims regarding human rights in Bangladesh.

Questionable sourcing

One of the most ironic aspects of Tasmiah Ahmed's December 30 article for Deutsche Welle is her reliance on the report from the Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG), a New Delhi-based "rights watchdog."

RRAG has faced accusations of spreading disinformation, particularly during the recent violence in Bangladesh’s hill tracts, which resulted in four deaths in September 2024.

A media research platform, DismisLab, published an investigation titled “From Four to a Hundred: The Politics of Disinformation in the Hill Tracts Conflict”, which revealed that the Human Rights Congress for Bangladeshi Minorities (HRCBM) had falsely claimed that 67 people were killed during the violence. The source cited for this misinformation was none other than RRAG.

Suhas Chakma, the director of RRAG, also fueled these claims by stating in an interview with News9 that nine indigenous people had been killed.

He further suggested that Chakma leaders from India had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to downgrade diplomatic relations with Bangladesh over the issue.

In her article, Tasmiah also cited the RRAG report to claim that more than 272,000 individuals—mostly political opponents—had been implicated in 1,598 criminal cases in the first 100 days of the Yunus administration.

She attributed most of these cases to the families of victims from the July-August uprising, during which security forces and supporters of Sheikh Hasina were accused of violent repression.

Additionally, Tasmiah referenced the RRAG’s findings on press freedom in Bangladesh, claiming that more than 354 journalists had been harassed, 74 incidents of violence had been reported, 113 criminal charges had been filed, and 167 journalists had their press credentials revoked.

The entire piece published by DW is heavily based on a report released by RRAG on November 18, 2024, which focused on the human rights situation in Bangladesh under the interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Problematic track records

Interestingly, Tasmiah, who is listed as the Executive Editor of Daily Our Time on her MuckRack and LinkedIn profiles, began contributing to Deutsche Welle just 22 days after Sheikh Hasina’s ousting on August 5, 2024.

Her first article for DW was titled “Bangladesh: Is the Interim Government Delaying Elections?”, which raised eyebrows given that both local and international media had acknowledged that a free, fair, and participatory election would require considerable time to organize.

This reliance on questionable sources and selective framing raises concerns about the objectivity of Tasmiah's analysis and the accuracy of her portrayal of the political and human rights situation in Bangladesh.

On November 18, Tasmiah Ahmed published another article for Deutsche Welle titled “How Inclusive Is Bangladesh's Democratic Restart?”

In this piece, Tasmiah portrayed Sheikh Hasina, who for over a decade has been accused of eroding the inclusive political culture in Bangladesh through three consecutive farcical one-party elections, as a messianic figure.

According to Tasmiah, Hasina "sacrificed her personal life for the betterment of the people of Bangladesh."

This narrative echoed a sentiment Tasmiah had expressed earlier, on July 17, in a Facebook post, where she praised Hasina as the "Honorable Prime Minister" and the "daughter of the founder of the nation."

She wrote, "She sacrificed her personal life for the betterment of the people of this land. She took every possible measure to bring the nation to where we are today.

At this stage of development, being ungrateful to the head of the government is akin to denying our very existence.

We, as a nation, won the Liberation War through unity under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and now we are advancing towards the development goals of the modern world under the capable leadership of his daughter."

Tasmiah further defended Hasina’s leadership, claiming, "My children may fall into the trap of these conspirators in the near future if I don't act now against these plotters. As long as our nation has the daughter of Bangabandhu by the grace of Almighty, we are in good hands. Nothing can harm us. I assure all the young students in the street, as a mother of four, that this government will never do anything harmful to young students. We must stand strong and united against any conspiracy. A mother’s instinct never goes wrong, and this is my request, as a mother."

This stark contrast between Tasmiah's portrayal of Hasina as a selfless leader and the criticism surrounding her government’s suppression of political opposition raises questions about the objectivity of her analysis and her views on the state of democracy in Bangladesh.

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