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In these attacks, three people were killed and 17 gravely injured, while one was abducted.
“The attackers either hacked the victims on the chest and back, or bludgeoned them and broke their limbs,” said the report, adding that the victims could not recognise their attackers in a single instance.
Human Rights Support Society (HRSS), in their annual report released yesterday, said four people were killed in such attacks.
It said at least 130 homes of opposition leaders and activists were attacked, vandalised or torched.
Regarding the convictions in old cases, it put the figure at 1,641 people convicted between August and December 2023.
The report further said that as many as 1,400 people were convicted in 82 cases just between December 7 and December 24.
It added that five people were killed in electoral violence, and as many 902 were injured in December 2023.
MSF said that over the year, at least 10 people were killed, and eight suffered bullet-wounds in electoral violence.
It said there were 59 allegations of law enforcers arbitrarily picking up people and reports of 53 individuals who were picked up, showed up as arrested in different police stations and courts.
HRSS said there were more allegations of enforced disappearance in 2023 compared to 2022.
It tracked 31 people who were forcibly disappeared for up to three days, of whom 19 were later shown arrested, and six were released.
No information could be obtained about the six others, it said.
BNP urges UN
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action to foster the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh,” the letter read.
Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi addressing a virtual press briefing yesterday, confirmed that the party had sent a letter to the UN.
The letter dated December 28 was addressed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, where the party presented its views on the country’s overall political and electoral situation.
“…Much like its predecessors, the lead-up to this so-called dummy election is marred by state-sponsored violence against pro-democracy activists, as well as targeted assaults on public and private establishments, causing the loss of lives and damage to assets,” the letter read.
Regarding the violence surrounding the elections and arson attacks, the party presented some incidents and it blamed the ruling party for those.
“We believe that the ongoing anarchy, jointly implemented by the AL and the police in a series of sabotage acts, should never serve as a strategy to undermine democracy and reinforce fascism,” the letter also read.
150 Palestinians
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As battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps, the UN said more than 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have fled their homes.
“We were hoping that 2024 would arrive under better auspices and that we would be able to celebrate the new year at home with our families,” said Mahmoud Abou Shahma in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
The ministry reported numerous deaths in overnight strikes on central Gaza’s Zawayda and the nearby Al-Mughazi refugee camp. A former Palestinian Authority minister was also killed in an Israeli strike on his home in the enclave.
In Khan Yunis, medics at Nasser hospital described severe shortages. “The hospital is receiving a lot more (patients) than its capacity,” doctor Ahmad Abu Mustafa said in footage shared by the WHO.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the growing threat of infectious diseases and the UN said Gaza is “just weeks away” from famine, reports AFP.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night that Israel’s war against Hamas will last for “many months” -- until the Palestinian group has been eliminated.
“The war is at its height,” Netanyahu told reporters. He said the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone that runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt must be in Israeli hands.
“It must be shut,” Netanyahu said. “It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek.”
International mediators -- who last month brokered a one-week truce that saw more than 100 hostages released and some aid enter Gaza -- continue in their efforts to secure a new pause in fighting.
US news outlet Axios and Israeli website Ynet, both citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported that Qatari mediators had told Israel that Hamas was prepared to resume talks on new hostage releases in exchange for a ceasefire.
A response will come “within days”, chief negotiator, Muhammad al-Hindi, of Islamic Jihad, another armed group fighting alongside Hamas, said.