Dhaka: Observing that the government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is increasingly becoming authoritarian, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said freedom of expression came under severe attack in Bangladesh in 2015.

‘While extremist groups targeted secular bloggers and foreign aid workers, the government cracked down on media and civil society activists, launched contempt of court proceedings, or prosecuted them under vague and overbroad laws,’ the New York-based rights agency said in a new report released on Wednesday.

In the 659-page World Report 2016, its 26^th edition, the group reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries.

In his introductory essay, HRW’s Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that authoritarian governments throughout the world, fearful of peaceful dissent that is often magnified by social media, embarked on the most intense crackdown on independent groups in recent times.

Roth said several commuters were killed or injured during violence that erupted during some Bangladeshi opposition blockades of transport routes.

The group has criticised the government for allegedly harassing the opposition.

‘The government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, became increasingly authoritarian, with security forces arresting key opposition leaders, often on trumped up charges, and state authorities refusing to prosecute security forces for serious violations, including torture, killings, and enforced disappearances,’ the report says.

‘There is no effective political opposition in Parliament because the main parties chose not to participate, but now the Sheikh Hasina government seems determined to stem all dissenting voices - even outside the parliament,’ said Brad Adams, Asia director. ‘It is terrible that when bloggers were murdered, the government could only preach self-censorship.’

In 2015, four bloggers and a publisher were hacked to death by radical Islamist groups, the report said. Other bloggers, writers, and publishers, whose names were published on a hit-list, went into hiding, concerned that government protection was either absent or at best inadequate. A Shia procession and a Hindu temple faced serious attacks, with many wounded, it said.

Civil society and media faced harsh conditions, the report said, contradicting previous statements by government ministers that media outlets are enjoying adequate freedom under Hasina’s administration.

‘Media critical of the government continued to face closure, as editors and journalists faced charges and arrest. Two men were prosecuted for social media posts criticizing the government,’ the group said.