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Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday urged the interim government to initiate an investigation under the United Nations into incidents of enforced disappearances that have plagued Bangladesh over the past 15 years.

Speaking at a solidarity meeting, he also called upon the government to take steps to provide allowances to each family of the victims of enforced disappearance.

‘I have been in politics for a long time. I knew about arrests and killings, but we were not aware of enforced disappearances. Since the Awami League came to power, their law enforcement agencies have used state power to commit such heinous crimes against humanity,’ he said.

The BNP leader appreciated that the current government had signed the UN convention against enforced disappearances.

‘It is also encouraging that, for the first time in Bangladesh, a team from the UN has arrived to take steps against the misdeeds committed by the autocratic regime. This is an initial fact-finding UN team which will investigate the killings that have occurred over the past two months.’

‘I urge the government to engage with the UN human rights commission to investigate all the crimes against humanity, killings, and enforced disappearances that have occurred over the past 15 years,’ he continued.

Fakhrul thanked the interim government for forming a five-member commission to find out forcibly disappeared people by the law enforcement agencies. ‘I also urge the government to ensure that allowances are provided to every family of the victims of enforced disappearance.’

Fakhrul said that many families were enduring significant hardship, struggling to support themselves, raise their children, and provide them with education. ‘It is the state’s duty to support these families.’

The BNP leader said that these families had long been sharing their distress. ‘When a child like Safa says – I want to walk down the street holding my father’s hand and I want to go to Eid prayers with him,’ as a father, I cannot bear to witness such a pain.’

He said that the state must restore the rights of the families of those who had been subjected to enforced disappearances and ensure justice for them.

Fakhrul questioned that why the dangerous individuals, involved in enforced disappearances, had not been arrested.

He expressed hope that the perpetrators of the incidents of enforced disappearance would be arrested and punished soon. ‘We must work towards transforming Bangladesh into a genuinely accountable democratic state.’

In observance of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, a solidarity meeting was held in front of the BNP’s central office in Nayapaltan to remember the victims.

During the meeting, family members of those, who have disappeared from BNP and its affiliated organisations, expressed their deep anguish in moving terms, prompting thousands of leaders and activists to show their solidarity with tears.

In the morning, ‘Mayer Dak,’ a platform, representing the families of the disappeared, organised a human chain at the Central Shaheed Minar. The event saw participation from human rights activists, politicians, lawyers, and relatives of the missing.