Govt Fails Its Responsibility: Jamaat

The government has not done its part to reunite relatives of missing people, according to Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

The state's duty to bring missing people home to their families has been wholly disregarded by the government and its law enforcement agencies. "The government has not been cooperating despite numerous requests from the missing people's family members to return them to their families," said the party's acting Amir Professor Mujibur Rahman in a statement on the occasion of "International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances" on Wednesday (30 August).

"According to the information of various national and international human rights organizations and agencies, in the last 14 and a half years during the reign of the current ruling government, 645 people of various classes and professions, including political leaders, students, businessmen, have been abducted by people in plain clothes posing as members of the law and order forces," the Jammat leader added.

He said families of missing and abducted persons are living in fear.

"Law enforcement forces are still harassing many people by going to their homes. Many relatives, including parents and wives of missing persons, are sick with grief due to the pain of losing their relatives. Repeated appeals to the government to return the missing persons to their families have yielded no results," he further said. 

Citing data from the Asian Human Rights Commission, Mujibur Rahman said 153 people are still missing, having gone missing at various times over the past 13 years.

"A total of 623 people have gone missing in Bangladesh from 2009 to 2022. The bodies of 84 of them have been recovered. 383 were shown to have returned alive or were subsequently arrested. No information is known about the three. I express deep concern for the missing persons and sincere condolences to their relatives," he said. 

Foreign nations are worried about the disappearances, the interim Jamaat chairman added.

"At the moment, there are no human rights in the nation. The right to life, the right to free expression, the right to democracy, and the right to vote have all been taken away. I call on my fellow citizens to speak up against the fascist government's anti-democratic practices, including its killings, disappearances, and persecutions.