Bangladesh, Nov. 5 -- Few cases in Bangladeshs modern history have been as politically charged or as cynically exploited as the Narayanganj Seven-Murder case. What began as a horrifying episode of abduction and killing in 2014 was soon transformed into a political theater—one that served the interests of the then Awami League regime under Sheikh Hasina and its local power brokers like Shamim Osman. Beneath the façade of justice, the case became a tool for political vindication, selective punishment, and systemic abuse of state power.

From the very beginning, the Hasina government used this case as a shield against mounting domestic and international allegations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. The Narayan...