Families of enforced disappearance victims and rights activists said that incidents of rights violation and enforced disappearance continued unabated amid the United States sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion.
They came up with the comment at a press conference after a businessman, Md Mohsin Gazi, was allegedly abducted by people in plain clothes, who identified themselves as members of the Detective Branch, from his house at Shewrapara in the capital on April 19 night.
The victim’s wife, Farida Yasmin, claimed that Mohsin was kept in the Rapid Action Battalion custody and tortured.
Mayer Daak, a platform of families of enforced disappearance victims, organised the press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity on Friday.
The victim families demanded an immediate return of their dear ones — before Eid-ul-Fitr.
The rights activists also demanded the formation of an independent commission to investigate all the disappearance and rights violation incidents.
Family members of disappearance victims broke down in tears while narrating their plights and ordeal in the search for their loved ones.
BNP ward-level leader Anwar Hossain’s daughter Riasa said that her father was abducted in 2016 and tortured for months.
The most painful aspect of enforced disappearances, victim families said, is that government ministers mock them and make objectionable comments about the victims instead of tracing them out.
According to Farida, her husband has a transport business and they live in a sublet at an apartment.
Six to seven people in three microbuses raided their apartment at about 3:00am, calming themselves as DB members from Bhola and saying that they would arrest Mohsin as he was warranted in a criminal case.
‘The plainclothes people did not show any arrest warrant. After we took pictures of them and their identification cards, they grabbed our cellphones and deleted all the pictures,’ said Farida.
She said that they went to the Kafrul police station to lodge a complaint over the incident.
‘A police member was sent to our neighbourhood to inquire about the incident, but the police initially refused to lodge the complaint, asking us to contact the DB office,’ said Farida.
The family finally succeeded in lodging a general diary five days after the incident.
Mohsin’s brother Bablu Gazi said that they were informed by a credible source that his brother was in RAB custody and were tortured there.
Mohsin was made accused in two cases — one over possessing illegal firearms and the other over harassing women — but those are false cases and no arrest warrant was issued in any case, claimed Bablu.
Contacted about the allegation, the RAB’s media wing director Khandaker Al Moin told New Age that they did not carry out any such raid or arrest at Shewrapara on that night.
‘The RAB follows all the legal procedures while making raids and arrests and it produces the arrested before the court within the 24 hours,’ Moin said.
Addressing the Mayer Daak event, Nagorik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna said that there was no hope for justice for the victim families as long as the incumbent regime was in power.
Law enforcement agencies such as the RAB and the police are blamed for incidents of disappearance and rights violation but the government backs them, he said, adding that the rights violation will, therefore, not be addressed by the government.
He went on to say that 70–80 per cent of the enforced disappearance victims were involved in BNP politics.
Manna criticised the government for asking India to help in revoking the US sanctions on the RAB and termed the government step as shameful.
Rights activist Nur Khan said that there were several incidents of enforced disappearance and rights violation amid the US sanctions and these could not be taken as isolated incidents.
He pointed out that some earlier enforced disappearance victims were found in neighboring India, saying that now the Bangladesh government is seeking India’s help for the withdrawal of the US sanctions.
The incidents raise suspicion about the neighbouring country’s involvement in disappearance incidents in Bangladesh, he added.
Rights activist and Dhaka University professor CR Abrar demanded the formation of a credible and independent commission for investigating all the enforced disappearance and rights violation incidents.
