Police foil Mayer Daak demos in Dhaka
Police yesterday obstructed the protests of Mayer Daak, a platform for the families of the victims of enforced disappearances, in front of the National Museum in the capital's Shahbagh on the eve of Human Rights Day.
Comprised mostly of women and children who lost family members to enforced disappearances, the group was barricaded off by cops in full riot gear. The police surrounded the protesters and prevented any visual access for cameras there to cover the event.
Another group of law enforcers drove away the rickshaws on which the portable loudspeakers, announcing the programme, were attached.
Anisa Islam Insha, 17-year-old daughter of businessman Ismail Hossain Baten, who has been missing since June 2019, was speaking about growing up without a father, when the police grabbed the mic from her.
The cops then jostled with them and eventually sent them away. But the protesters regrouped in front of the National Press Club.
There, Insha continued, sobbing uncontrollably, "You've taken away my father and now you're taking away my right to speak.
"I'm not at all afraid of the police. I didn't feel afraid when they took away my mic – I just felt angry. For the past five years, I have a new identity – I'm the daughter of an enforced disappearance victim. Today, I'll not leave my ground."
Adiba Islam Hridi, 13-year-old daughter of Chhatra Dal leader Parvez Hossain, who remains missing since 2013, took to the mic and said, "Why are the police not letting me demand my father's return? … I am so tired of asking for it over and over again."
Other children present in the crowd harassed by riot police included Arowa, the daughter of forcibly disappeared BNP leader Sajedul Islam Sumon; Lamiya Akter Mim, the daughter of Kawsar Hossain who was picked up by law enforcers from his house in West Nakhalpara in December 2013; and Safa, the daughter of Md Sohel, a Bangshal thana Chhatra Dal leaders, who has been missing for a decade.
Ayesha Ali, the mother of Abdul Quader Bhuiyan Masum, a final-year student of the capital's Government Titumir College, described how she was not even allowed to hold a banner asking for her son's return.
"When I held up my banner, the police forced me to roll it back.
"My son was going to be an intelligence officer just like them. He had even passed his written exams but then he was picked up."
Salma Islam Maya's husband, Shamsul Islam Soleiman, joint secretary of Laxmipur district Jubo Dal, was picked up in 2014 and found dead four days after.
"My children didn't want me to come here but how could I not? When my husband was picked up, my two-year old son was in his arms. My son was thrown onto the rail tracks from a moving car and a shopkeeper rescued him. His leg was fractured. My son still can't walk properly."
Police in plainclothes took down the details of the families present at the protest.
Meanwhile, Ain o Salish Kendra, a legal aid and human rights organisation, demanded the immediate and impartial investigation of all the cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
"The government must be tolerant regarding the people's right to freedom of assembly. A culture of peaceful assembly must be cultivated, and the government must refrain from showing excessive force or intimidating those with a difference in beliefs and ideals," it said.
The platform demanded the government ensure that the law enforcement maintains the directions given by the High Court regarding arrest without warrant.