Khaleda for UN probe into disappearances
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday called upon the United Nations to investigate what happened to those who were "made to disappear between 2009 and 2015" in Bangladesh.
"The family members of the victims should at least know whether their near and dear ones are alive or not," Khaleda said at an impromptu programme at her Gulshan office in the evening to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
Families of 26 victims of enforced disappearances were present there.
In her brief speech, Khaleda said if her party came to power again, they would conduct proper investigations to know the fate of the victims of enforced disappearances.
A pall of gloom descended on the room when a video documenting paper clippings and television footages on the victims of enforced disappearances was played.
"I will urge the government to tell me whether my son was killed and, if so, where he was buried so that I can visit his grave at least," said an emotion-choked Shamsuddin, father of Nizamuddin Munna, joint general secretary of pro-BNP Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal's Airport Thana unit.
He said plain-clothes policemen picked up his son from their residence in the city on December 6, 2013, saying they had received complaints against him. They didn't elaborate on this further, he claimed.
"I went to police, to the Rab, everywhere to know my son's whereabouts but none of them could say what really happened to him," said the 60-year-old.
Tahsina Rushdir -- wife of BNP Organising Secretary M Ilias Ali who went missing on April 17, 2012 -- said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had assured her of finding out her husband. "Three years have passed since then but we have yet to know the fate of my husband."
BNP insiders said Khaleda Zia's programme was organised suddenly after the Jatiya Press Club authorities cancelled a pre-scheduled event of rights body Odhikar in the afternoon. Family members of the victims of enforced disappearances were then asked to attend the BNP chief's programme.
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