�Bring my father back�
Abhijeet Das
Bring my father back. He will take me to school and buy ice-cream for me on the way. My mother cannot afford to give me what I want. She cries at night for my father and I cry with her, says a moist-eyed Ridi (5), holding her father, Pervez Hossains photograph in her soft hands. Tears well up in Pervezs wife, Farjana Akter, as she recalls, How can I forget the day when my husband disappeared? Araf (her youngest child) was in my womb then. He is almost two years old now and it is easy to manage him but I have to often pacify Ridi, saying her father has gone abroad for works and will return soon. I urge the government to give me back my husband before Araf starts missing his fathers arms, she cries.
Two years ago on December 2, 2013, Old Paltan Thana Chhatral Dal President, Pervez, disappeared from Shahabagh. According to witnesses, he was picked up by DB police. However, Pervez wasnt alone in this vanishing act. On December 8 the same year, some 8 BNP activists and leaders were abducted, and another 11 people, including 25 Ward BNP General Secretary, Sajedul Islam Sumon, went missing from different areas of the capital. Their families, all but alleged that they were victims of enforced disappearance by the Rapid Action Battalion.
Like every year, mothers of these victims yesterday held a press conference at the National Press Club to commemorate the second anniversary of their alleged disappearance and demanded that the government intervene to ensure return of their lost sons. The VIP Lounge of Press Club was charged with emotion as the victims mothers, fathers, children, sisters and brothers wept and expressed their inner turmoil at finding their loved ones suddenly gone. Members of the victims families lamented that they had written to the Home Ministry, formed human chains and held multiple press conferences, seeking some information from the government as to whether their near and dear ones had been detained, were dead or alive but their efforts had been in vain.
One Nijam Uddin, Ddakkhin Khan Thana Chhatra Dal Joint Secretary, had been abducted from Mollartek from right under the noses of his family members. Nijams father, Samsuddin, recalled that some armed people in civilian dress, who introduced themselves as law enforcers, had detained Nijam on December 6, 2013. I lost my son. What he did is he supported BNP and attended a procession in front of Hajj camp as BNP-led 20 parties staged a country-wide strike before January 5 general elections. At night, they came to our house and picked him up. Later, I went to RAB-1 and Dakkhin Khan to find him but they said they did not know, cried Samsuddin.
I ask is participating in politics a crime? No case was filed in lieu of my missing son. I have been waiting for his return for the past two years. At least, I deserve to know his whereabouts or the soil where he has been buried if he was killed, wept the old man.
Sumons mother, Sajeda Khatun, who delivered the keynote at the press briefing said, We urge Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to give us back our sons. We cannot take it anymore. Its been two years since we lost them.
While members of the victims families have alleged that law enforcers played a role in the enforced disappearance of their loved ones, the government has always rubbished all such claims. Yesterdays press conference saw family members of all 19 victims once again plead to the government for some any information on their near and dear ones.
