In Dhaka, forced disappearances continue to repress the opposition

The Mayer Dak organization has received 645 reports of missing people under the current government, but the real figure is likely three times higher, experts say. At an event yesterday to mark the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, relatives of those who never returned home called for justice.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - When Abdul Quader Bhuiyan disappeared 10 years ago, he was in his third year at Titumir College in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. His mother, Ayesha Ali, is still waiting for her only son to return home: "Now I am the mother of a missing boy," she said yesterday on the occasion of the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance.

She was attending an event organized by “Mayer Dak” (“mother's call”), a human rights organization that brings together those with at least one missing family member. "It's not possible for a mother to explain how difficult it is to live with this pain," she added.

Sanjida Islam Tuli, human rights activist and coordinator of Mayer Dak, said that the number of missing people under the current government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is at least 645: “We collect information by contacting the families of missing victims in our net. We believe there have been 645 cases of disappearance but at the same time we know that many cases have not reached us, so the number is at least three times higher."

The relatives of numerous victims who disappeared in different areas of the country accepted the humanitarian organization's appeal and gathered in a building of the Institution of Diploma Engineers, bringing photos of their loved ones who they have not heard from for several years.

Even Khaled Hasan Sohail, for example, disappeared 10 years ago and his wife, Sharmin Sultana, has no idea what could have happened to him: “On November 27, 2013 he was picked up in front of the central prison in Dhaka. Now I don't know if he's alive or dead. My only request is that my husband be returned to me." Khaled Sohail was chairman of Ward No. 43 of the Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatra Dal, the student wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition political formation.

According to Professor Asif Nazrul of the University of Dhaka, forced disappearances are carried out "to spread fear among dissidents, to silence them, and all this is done to stay in power illegally", he explained, adding that those who guilty of such crimes have never been called to account for their actions.

“After the ban by the United States against some officers of the RAB - the Rapid Action Battalion, an anti-terrorism squad of the Bangladesh police allegedly involved in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances -, shootings and armed killings have become much diminished. But recently the number of disappearances have started to increase again, especially political ones,” commented Noor Khan, human rights activist and secretary general of the humanitarian organization Ain O Salish Kendra (or ASAK).

“We've seen it happen more often during the day lately. And the strategy has changed: after disappearing for a few days, the victims are presented in court and sometimes released. Also there are more complaints against DB,” the investigation branch of Bangladesh Police, added.

According to a report by the Asian Human Rights Commission, between January 2009 and June 2022, there were 623 missing people across Bangladesh, of whom at least 153 had disappeared before September 2009. At least 84 victims were found dead, while 383 were alive, in prison or returned home.

The Commission also believes that forced disappearances continue to be a way to repress opposition and dissent, also in view of the next national elections scheduled for January 2024.

Prime Minister Hasina has been repeatedly accused by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of having won the last rounds of elections through electoral fraud. In recent months there have been clashes and unrest in the main cities of Bangladesh, with the opposition calling for the creation of a neutral interim government that would lead the country to elections. An eventuality already excluded by the executive.