Sahara Khatun

Khatun's tenure as minister of home affairs has been marred by the following controversies.

During the 2009 BDR Mutiny, Khatun led the delegation[11] to negotiate with the mutineers, who were soldiers staging a mutiny against their officers of Bangladesh Rifles, the paramilitary force in charge of the borders. She went inside the campus of Bangladesh Rifles[11] to stimulate negotiation and to ask the mutineers to put their arms down.

The mutiny resulted in the death of 53 top officials of the army, and 3 family members.[12]

Since Bangladesh Rifles falls under the jurisdiction of the Home Ministry,[13] Sahara Khatun was largely blamed for failures in the massacre. She later blamed the deaths on the banned group Hizbut Tahrir.[14][15]

Moreover, her ministry came under scrutiny when the arrested mutineers kept having mysterious deaths while under custody before trials.[16][17]

Khatun was criticised for the extrajudicial killings done by her forces, namely the Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalion. According to Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar, 127 citizens experienced extrajudicial killings in 2010 alone.[18]

Awami League in 2008 had promised in its election manifesto that it would stop all extrajudicial killings if brought to power,[19] and Human Rights Watch observed that Awami League had failed in its promise.[18]

Khatun attracted criticism in August 2010 when she asked the Hindu-minorities to cut their religious festival Janmastami short, so that it wouldn't clash with the Muslim-majority observances of Ramadan, as they coincided during the same time period. She urged the Hindu community not to make loud noises during sunset, when Muslims would be having iftar.[20] Her comments were considered discriminatory, since a limitation on minority celebrations were being imposed for the first time; Hindu festivals had previously coincided with Ramadan in Bangladesh.[20]