Of uncertainty and struggle

Parvez Hossain gave Tk 500 to his wife Farzeena Akhter before leaving home seven years ago. That was all she was left with.

She was carrying her second child when Parvez, the then city's Bangshal thana unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal general secretary, was allegedly picked up by some plainclothes men on the night of December 2, 2013.

He never returned.

Farzeena could not withdraw a single penny from three bank accounts of Parvez, despite the hardship she has been enduring in the absence of her husband, the lone earner of the family.

"My children are growing up, so are their demands. They often ask for things, which I can hardly afford or fulfil. Being a mother, it pains me," she told The Daily Star on Thursday.

Parvez had a cloth business jointly with a friend. After his disappearance, his business partner did not return the invested money or any profit, saying they incurred loss, Farzeena said.

"Now my financial condition is so bad that I don't know how I will survive with my daughter and son…," said the mother of two while trying to hold back tears.

Like Farzeena, wives of many victims who remained traceless for years after being taken away, allegedly by law enforcers, have been suffering exacerbated economic hardships as they could not withdraw money from the bank accounts of their husbands, most of whom were sole breadwinners of the families.

As per the existing rules, if a court orders handing over money to the inheritors of missing account holders, the bank will provide it.

But the wives of disappeared victims in most cases don't want to go to court, not willing to add further hassle to their already ravaged lives. So, apart from the agony of not getting any trace of the whereabouts of their husbands, the economic hardship leaves them in utter despair.

"I am sick and need to see a specialist doctor. But I don't have enough money to visit a doctor," Farzeena said. Her daughter is now 10-year-old while the son is six-year-old.

She said she doesn't want to observe any day in remembrance of her husband's disappearance. "It hurts me. We were never ready to face such a tragedy," she said, adding that her husband's party does not enquire about them.

Tahsina Rushdir, wife of BNP leader M Ilias Ali, has a similar story to tell.

She could neither withdraw any money from the bank accounts of her husband, nor use his properties. "Everything remained closed," she told this correspondent over the phone on August 27.

"For withdrawal of the money, banks want a succession certificate. If I want to get a succession letter I have to go to court and say that my husband is dead. How can I do that?" she said.

However, bank officials say it is the court jurisdiction to allow a bank to provide the money from a missing husband's account to the wife.

Tahsina said the government knows very well where her husband is. So, it is the government's responsibility to say whether he is dead or alive, she added.

She said since she resigned from the service before the last national election, she is now going through financial hardship. "I have to live with this reality as it is my fate," she said in frustration.

Ilias, the then BNP organising secretary, went missing along with his driver in the wee hours of April 18, 2012. His car was found abandoned in Banani with all its four doors flung open.

Jhorna Khanam, wife of another enforced disappearance victim, said she knew her husband had maintained a savings account with a private bank, but she never went to see whether the account is valid and how much money he left with the account.

"I never go there as it is so painful," Jhorna, wife of Khulna district Chhatra Union ex-president Shamim Hossain, told The Daily Star.

Shamim was forced into a microbus in the morning of September 29, 2011, by five to six men at the capital's Purana Paltan Lane. Since then, Shamim has been traceless.

Shammi Sultana, wife of Khalid Hasan, former president of ward-79 Dhaka City unit of Chhatra Dal, said her husband had a book business. The family alleges that Khalid was picked up by plainclothes detectives in front of the gate of the old central jail on November 28, 2013.

"I never wanted to know where he kept his money and whether he had any bank account as I never thought even in my wildest dream that such a bad day would come," she said.

According to the rights body Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), around 600 people fell victims to enforced disappearance from 2007 to this year.

Many of them never returned while some came back home. Bodies of many were found later while many others were shown arrested in different cases days or months after they were allegedly taken away by plainclothes men.