C T Online Desk: Families of enforced disappearance victims, politicians and rights activists on Saturday at a protest rally in the capital called on the government anew to locate their relatives.
They alleged that the country’s security and law enforcement agencies were behind the abductions of persons mostly belonging to the opposition political parties and representing the voices of dissent.
The protest rally was organised by Mayer Daak, a platform of the families of victims of enforced disappearance, in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh to observe the International Week of the Disappeared, also observed globally, from May 21 to May 27 in solidarity with the families of the disappeared.
Mothers, sisters, children, spouses and sympathisers holding photos, banners, placards or portraits of missing persons also vowed that they would be waiting for justice and punishment to the perpetrators serving government agencies for committing the crime against humanity.
Every year, the world observes the International Week of the Disappeared to remember those who have been forcibly disappeared.
‘We are supporters of the ruling Awami League. My son Sazzad Hossain Sabuj was [Awami] Swechchhasebak League’s Kushtia district unit secretary. He was abducted on August 21, 2015 and his whereabouts are still unknown,’ the victim’s mother Sahida Begum said.
She was accompanied by her daughter-in-law Jannatul Ferdous Zinia, wife of her disappeared son, among others, to the rally.
Zinia said that they had spent some Tk 1 crore to learn the whereabouts of her husband but in vain.
She narrated that her husband was initially picked up by the Rapid Action Battalion-1 from a resort in Gazipur and later he was kept in detention under the RAB-4.
‘One of the men, who were in the custody with my husband, told us that he was last seen in RAB-4 custody,’ said the disappeared’s wife.
Mahfuza Akhter, a daughter of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Chowdhury Alam who was abducted in 2010, was holding a portrait of her father and in tears.
She said that her father was a popular opposition leader in the capital’s Gulistan area.
‘Plainclothes people in three microbuses obstructed him and picked him up on Indira Road. We are yet to know where my father is and why he was picked up,’ said her daughter in her 30s.
Dozens of family members of victims, who have disappeared over the decade during the tenure of the Awami League-led government, came together and briefly narrated their experiences of how their near and dear ones were taken away by members of law enforcement agencies and still remain untraced.
The government always dismissed the allegations.
Anika Islam Irsha, daughter of missing Mirpur-based trader Ismail Hossain, said at the rally that they could not determine in the past three years whether her father was alive or not.
Ismail’s family says that a navy official deputed to the Rapid Action Battalion was behind his disappearance from the capital’s Mirpur on June 19, 2019. The allegation was denied by the RAB.
Parbatya Chattogram Pahari Chhatra Parishad leader Amol Tripura called on the government to ascertain and disclose the whereabouts of Michael Chakma, a leader of the Chattogram Hill Tracts-based United People’s Democratic Front.
Michael went missing on April 9, 2019 on his way to Dhaka from Narayanganj.
‘We blame the state for the inaction as it did not take any step to locate our leader. We were told at police stations the police could not find anyone who was in the custody of other agencies,’ said Amol, who was holding a portrait of Michael.
Ahead of the 126th session of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, overseen by the UN Human Rights Council, held in February 7-11, 2022, Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters that a lot of the people listed by some UN bodies as disappeared had actually drowned in the Mediterranean.
Addressing the protest rally, Nagorik Oikya convenor Mahmudur Rahman Manna blasted the foreign minister for his remark, citing that the UN has reported that Bangladesh has shared insufficient information on 66 cases of disappearances.
Jatiya Mukti Council general secretary Fayzul Hakim Lala said that disappearances were no new phenomenon as the then government, between 1972 and 1975, used the law enforcers, especially the Jatiya Rakkhia Bahini, to eliminate left-leaning politicians and activists.
Retired diplomat Sakib Ali, Odhikar director ASM Nasiruddin Elan, acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam, Ganosamhati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki, among others, expressed their solidarity with the rally that was chaired by Mayer Daak coordinator Afroza Islam Akhi, sister of disappeared BNP leader Sajedul Islam Sumon.
The rally organisers alleged that a rickshaw that held a public announcement system for the rally had been taken away by unidentified people immediately before the event started.
Shahbagh police station sub-inspector Harun Or Rashid said that he also received a verbal complaint from the organisers in this regard.
Enforced disappearance emerged as a major cause for concern as Odhikar stated that at least 604 people had been forcibly disappeared by security forces and law enforcement agencies since 2009.
