Sons of Ghulam Azam and Mir Quasem released

Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) said it would share an update today on the victims of enforced disappearance at the facility known as "Aynaghor".

This was conveyed at a meeting between human rights advocates and Brig Gen Tamjidul Haque, director of the Signals Intelligence Bureau of DGFI.

UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis; Mayer Daak cofounder Sanjida Islam Tulee; Senior Human Rights Adviser to UN Resident Coordinator's Office in Bangladesh Huma Khan; prominent photojournalist Shahidul Alam; women's rights leader Shireen Huq; and Vice-chair of Forum Asia Taskin Fahmina went to the DGFI headquarters yesterday morning.

At the meeting, they demanded access to the detention facility, alleged to be located inside the DGFI premises, and victims of enforced disappearances be set free.

As they went inside, family members of the victims waited outside the headquarters.

Anisha Islam Insha, the teenage daughter of forcibly disappeared Ismail Hossain Baten, broke down in tears after having to leave without her father.

Timber trader Baten was allegedly picked up from Dhaka by members of a government security agency in 2019.

"I have been walking the streets of Dhaka holding my father's photo all these years, and I had hoped I would be able to walk back home with him today. But that did not happen," said a crying Insha.

"I have waited all these years for my husband. I am going back disappointed today, but I have faith that I will get him back tomorrow," said Shahnaz, wife of Humayun Kabir Parvez, the BNP president of Laksham pourashava unit, who was picked up on November, 27, 2017.

Yesterday's meeting followed the release of former army brigadier general Abdullahil Aman Azmi, the second son of former Jamaat ameer and war criminal late Ghulam Azam; and Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem (Arman), the younger son of executed Jamaat leader and war criminal Mir Quasem Ali.

Afroza Islam Ankhi, sister of forcibly disappeared BNP leader Sajedul Islam Sumon and one of the coordinators of Mayer Daak, a platform for the families of the victims of enforced disappearances, told The Daily Star that Azmi and Ahmad have been found.

They were handed over to their family members in Uttara's Diabari yesterday morning, she said.

Azmi had been forcibly detained since August 23, 2016, and Mir Ahmad, since August 9, 2016.