Survivors and the families of the victims of enforced disappearances on Saturday urged the government to take necessary steps to bring an end to the culture of enforced disappearance.
They made the demand at a discussion titled 鈥極n the Road to Accountability: Commemorating the Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearances,鈥� jointly organised by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
The commission chief and former chief justice Moinul Islam Chowdhury said that enforced disappearance was more terrifying than death, and noted that the judicial system failed to play a proactive role in curbing human rights abuses.
He said that there must be institutional reforms by making necessary amendments to eliminate enforced disappearances.
Meanwhile, the law ministry adviser Asif Nazrul reaffirmed the government鈥檚 commitment to establishing a stronger accountability mechanism and addressing the concerns of the families of the victims of enforced disappearances.
Enforced disappearance survivor and ethnic minority activist Michael Chakma urged the government to identify the persons and forces involved in the incidents of enforced disappearances, and bring them to book.
Mayer Daak coordinator Sanjida Islam Tulee urged the commission to identify the families of the victims who were picked up by the members of the state forces and never came back.
Tulee鈥檚 brother and a Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Sajedul Islam Shumon was picked up by the Rapid Action Battalion in December 2013 and never came back.
The speakers also suggested the commission for memorialisation of the secret detention cells, known as 鈥楢ynaghar鈥�, so that everyone could see how inhumane Hasina was.
The interim government, after assuming office on August 8, 2024, three days after the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising, vowed to investigate the incidents of enforced disappearance and bring the perpetrators to book and formed a Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance on August 27, 2024.
The commission received more than 1,800 complaints of enforced enforcement that occurred during the Awami League regime between January 6, 2009 and August 5, 2024.
Of them, it found 250 cases had clear evidence of enforced disappearance as the victims later returned, about 300 of the victims are still missing and the rest of the cases were still under their investigation.
The commission said that all survivors were framed in false and fabricated cases, mostly under the Anti-terrorism Act.
Addressing the event, law adviser Asif Nazrul said, 鈥榃e need to take a tougher position against enforced disappearances and create a position from where it becomes difficult for anyone to deviate.鈥�
Regarding false cases, Asif said that they had withdrawn around 20,000 politically motivated cases but the stakeholders warned that extremism and terrorism related cases should not be withdrawn.
Ministries of industries and public works adviser Adilur Rahman Khan said that he hoped the OHCHR and the commission, through their joint efforts, would show a path to the people who had been seeking justice for the cases of enforced disappearance, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Regarding the newly drafted law for enforced disappearances, Huma Khan, the chief of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Dhaka, said that the progress had been slow and there were some challenges with the drafts that they had seen.
鈥業 would like to urge the interim government to dissociate some issues from the law. One of the issues that the families of the victims, who had not returned, should not be waiting for the law to access their property and their bank account,鈥� she said.
Bangladesh鈥檚 interim government, on August 28, approved a draft of the Enforced Disappearance Prevention, Remedies and Protection Ordinance 2025 in principle, which proposed the death penalty and other severe punishments for committing the crimes.
The government, on August 28, 2024, signed the Instrument of Accession to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
