Suffering of Relatives While in Search of the Missing

When Monowara Hossain answered the phone, she was at the office of Anjuman Mofidul Islam, a charity for burying unclaimed bodies.

On January 13, he went to search for the grave of his missing son.

Sadman Shakib, a 23-year-old boy, has been searching for his missing son for a month and a half.

In a general diary filed with the Bhatara police station in the capital, he informed the police about his son's disappearance and went to the RAB and CID offices.

But in the end he found the whereabouts of the boy himself. But not alive, found the grave of the dead boy.

Monwara Hossain, an expatriate from Saudi Arabia, told BBC Bangla: "I have been calling my son's mobile number every day since he went missing. I have always turned it off. Suddenly I got the call back at the end of last month. A woman from Hatirjheel answered. Then I went to Hatirjheel police station and found out what happened to my son's fate. "

The officer investigating the incident at Hatirjheel Police Station told BBC Bangla that a body was found floating under the Madhubag Bridge near Hatirjheel around 4pm on January 14.

After recovering the slightly swollen body, the police first conducted an inquest. The body was then sent to the morgue of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

According to the information given by this officer, after the autopsy, the body was lying there for about a month and a half. On February 11, the body was given to Mofidul Islam in Anjuman for burial.

Sadman Shakib was born in Saudi Arabia. He came to visit Bangladesh once when he was three years old. 20 years later he came to Bangladesh again.

Monowara Hossain raised the question, "What is the distance from Hatirjheel police station to Bhatara police station? I went to various places including police station, RAB, CID for a month and a half. I have to find out that my son is gone. "

What the police do in search of missing persons

If a person goes missing in Bangladesh, the experience of his relatives is not new. There are no separate law enforcement agencies and databases for the search for missing persons.

After making a GD at the police station to take the investigation forward, the relatives had to run after the police.

Monowara Hossain says, "My son is not the son of an influential person or an administration. So it did not matter to them."

Iftekhairul Islam, ADC of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's media wing, said the first step if someone goes missing is to file a GD with the police station.

"If the matter is not related to the disappearance, abduction or any kind of ransom, is missing or has left the house without saying anything, then the matter has to be reported to the local police station by GD."

After making a GD about the missing person, a policeman was assigned to investigate the incident.

If he thinks there is anything to suspect, he appeals to the court to investigate the matter.

Iftekhairul Islam said radio messages were sent to all the police stations in the district where the incident took place and to the police stations in the surrounding districts.

So that detailed information about the person is sought. The intelligence department also conducts a shadow investigation. But what exactly is the reality, how quickly it is, is a matter of doubt.

However, Iftekhairul Islam said that no database has been created yet regarding the list of missing persons, information, general diaries made about them.

An account of missing persons is kept at the departmental level. However, the police have a database of people accused of various crimes and offenses.

For some time now, there has been a section called 'Lost and Found' in the news portal of Dhaka Metropolitan Police which is giving the news that 'I want to search' with pictures and detailed information.

In another part called 'Unidentified Dead Body', the identity of the unidentified corpse is sought with the picture of the dead body.

However, things are not going very smoothly yet. No information is available here about many missing persons.

Police sometimes post pictures of missing children on Facebook.

The deficits that remain

Many countries around the world have databases of missing persons with detailed information, pictures and fingerprints.

The message goes to all the branches of the police, any branch can search there. When the body was found, it was matched in the database of missing persons.

If an unclaimed body is found in Bangladesh, it does not matter unless there is a serious injury.

Khandaker Farzana Rahman, head of the criminology department at Dhaka University, said, "When someone goes missing in our country, the law enforcement forces undermine the issue a bit. Sometimes modern technology is used. "

About 11 crore people in Bangladesh have national identity cards in their hands which contain detailed information including fingerprints.

Even if you can pick up the SIM card, you have to give your fingerprint. He said that it is very easy to create a database with this information.

Farzana Rahman says, "It is very important to have a database. If the number of missing persons GD in each police station is in the database with pictures, then it is easy to know whether the dead person and the missing person are the same person by matching the pictures with the missing bodies." If there is information in the police station then other police stations will get it very easily."

He thinks that there is no database or necessary equipment for missing persons as the issue is not important.

Source: BBC Bangla