AUGUST 30 is International Day of the Disappeared. A day not only for prayers and tears, but also a day to denounce, loudly demand justice and renew the vow to never lose hope. Enforced disappearances are continuing offences. They may span days, months and even decades. Enforced disappearances are a strategy used by repressive regimes to strike fear, control citizens and, in effect, terrorise the nation.
On the evening of January 20, 2019, Abdul Kalam Azad was walking back home from a nearby tea stall when about 12 people on motorbikes, who said they were members of the Detective Branch, blocked his way and forcibly took him away. Just over an hour later, a DB official named Enamul visited his home and asked for Azad鈥檚 whereabouts 鈥� as if the DB had not been involved in the incident. In the days that followed, Azad鈥檚 wife Nilufa searched for her husband at the Khulna DB office, the Superintendent of Police office, and the RAB office. Each one denied any knowledge of the arrest. Her efforts were met with derision. Nilufa recounted that when she pressed for information, Enamul hurled vulgar insults at her, even calling her a听鈥榩rostitute.鈥櫶� He also threatened her that if she continued searching or pursued legal action,听鈥榯here would be no one left in her family to light a lamp at their homestead.鈥� During the authoritarian Awami League regime, Nilufa鈥檚 attempts to seek justice were met with repeated refusals and intimidation. She was only able to file a general diary. Now, with conditions shifting, she is preparing to pursue formal legal action.
On January 8, 2020, Nur Mohammad Anik, then a student at Khulna University, was expelled without due process by the provost of Bangabandhu Hall and handed over to law enforcers. The grounds were accusations of ties to 鈥業slamist militant groups鈥�, which were claims that surfaced after Nur publicly opposed Indian interference in Bangladesh鈥檚 internal affairs. Instead of being produced before a court within 24 hours of arrest, as legally required, Nur was taken to Bogra police lines and held incommunicado until the morning of January 24, 2020. That night, he was transferred to the Khulna Metropolitan Police. Mere hours later, on January 25, 2020, Nur was officially shown as arrested in cases linked to an alleged gunfight between police and Islamist militants 鈥� an incident that took place on the very night he was transferred. He was charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009 and the Explosive Substances Act 1908.听This manufactured arrest was followed by 17 days of undocumented detention. During his confinement in Bogura, Nur was coerced into signing a blank sheet of paper. After enduring five and a half years behind bars, Nur was finally released on bail in July 2025.
Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, defines the term 鈥榚nforced disappearance鈥� as听the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the state or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the state; followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person; and which places such a person outside the protection of the law. Basically, this means that enforced disappearances are detentions for which authorities deny responsibility and deny all information that could help families to begin legal proceedings. Clause 2 of Article 6 of the convention, states that no order or instruction from any public authority, civilian, military or other, may be invoked to justify an offence of enforced disappearance.
Refusing to give information and the confusion regarding the identity of the captors guarantees that enforced disappearances proceed in impunity. From knowledge, gleaned from investigation reports, the media, and now also from testimonies from family members, a person is taken away by men either claiming to be police or from some other law enforcement agency and he is not seen again. Family members rush to the local police stations or police camps, where officers have no knowledge of the incident and deny any involvement. This adds to the confusion and panic suffered by the families.
In Bangladesh a trend of enforced disappearances as a tool of oppression, became noticeable from 2010. When a person is arrested or picked up by people claiming to be from a law enforcement agency, the common fear is that he may be tortured 鈥� or he may disappear. According to statistics from rights organisation Odhikar, between January 2009 and June 2024, 709 people have been disappeared, of which 471 surfaced alive. According to witnesses and families, they were picked up by people either claiming to be law enforcers or wearing uniforms. A majority of those who were disappeared were persons critical of or opposing the regime or belonging to opposing political parties. Those who surfaced alive were disappeared for a period of time and then brought to court and implicated in some pending criminal case. After that, they were sent to jail through the court.
Enforced disappearance is recognised under international law as a crime against humanity, and Bangladesh is now obligated to criminalise it after the government signed the听International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance听on August 29, 2024. The government must now enact a domestic law to address enforced disappearance, provide reparations, allow victim families to access bank accounts and manage the legal affairs of the disappeared and ensure that the perpetrators and their enablers are held judicially accountable. The law must also provide some form of protection to victims and victim families, given the nature and malpractices of members of law enforcement entities. This last issue is necessary but tricky since the protection will most probably have to be provided and handled by members of the law enforcement fraternity. The cabinet has in principle approved a bill on the legislation.
We cannot discuss enforced disappearances without an 鈥榙ishonourable mention鈥� to the human rights violation of torture. From those who surfaced alive, it has been learnt that all victims of enforced disappearances were physically and mentally tortured. In July 2025, the Interim Government acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. However, in 1998, Bangladesh ratified the Convention against Torture and took no steps to monitor, curb or criminalise this. Even after the 2013 anti-torture legislation was passed, torture and the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators, continued. Will the Optional Protocol change anything? Will a law criminalising enforced disappearances and accession to the Convention put a stop to this violation? Enforced disappearances and torture are both violations of human rights and criminal offences. It is imperative that, like torture, there needs to be legal provisions to prevent enforced disappearances and punish the perpetrators. Those monitoring the application of the 2013 anti-torture legislation may be sorely disappointed at the lack of implementation of this law. This may possibly also be the case if a law against enforced disappearances is enacted. However, the fact that there is a law, gives victims the scope to prosecute, despite possible lack of political will to stop. Without such legislation, there will be no justice and the violation might re-emerge with impunity.
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Saira Rahman Khan teaches law at BRAC University.
