enforced disappearance

‘Handcuffs, blindfold ... it felt like a grave’

Usually, one sees the families of the victims of enforced disappearances demanding their loved ones be returned. But in a rare occurrence, the survivors came to the fore at a programme yesterday to narrate the ordeals they went through.

Enforced disappearances / Bangladesh should support UN's offer of independent commission: HRW

Bangladesh authorities should accept the UN's offer to support an independent commission of inquiry into enforced disappearances, Human Rights Watch said yesterday, on the eve of today's International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances 2023 / Find the unadulterated truth about all alleged disappearances

No credible and independent investigation has so far been carried out into any of the alleged incidents of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh.

US envoy's Shaheenbagh visit attempt to interfere in Bangladesh's internal affairs: Russia

Russia believes that the US ambassador's visit to Shaheenbagh to meet with the family of a supporter of an opposition political party is an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Bangladesh.

Sanctions on Rab ‘worked like a tonic’

US sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion “worked like a tonic”, rights activists said yesterday as the number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances dropped significantly in the last year.

Man “picked up by Rab,” shown arrested after 17 days

A man, Nurul Afsar Hawladar, who was picked up from Uttara on September 22 allegedly by Rab, was shown arrested in Cox's Bazar yesterday (October 9, 2022).

‘Expatriate Diplomacy’ and ‘Mercenary Columnists’

Government decision to engage in expatriate diplomacy to tackle negative propaganda raises a lot of questions.

“I cannot use a phone for my safety or ride my bicycle anymore”

"I cannot use a phone for my safety, or ride my bicycle, which I have ridden for 50 years," said photojournalist Shahidul Alam at a lecture session in Dhaka today (September 3, 2022).

A family forced into never-ending distress

Four years ago, some plainclothesmen picked up Mohon Mia from his Mirpur house. He has never returned home again. His father Jamsher Ali, a trader, has long insisted he has proof that Rab-4 members took his elder son away without giving any reason.

April 23, 2018
April 23, 2018

Put public concerns at rest

On average, 16 people have become victims of enforced disappearance between 2012 and 2017, which amounts to more than one every month. It is regrettable too that in the four or five years that the afflicted families have been making their annual plea to the government through a press conference, to trace the victims out, their number has risen gradually.

November 17, 2017
November 17, 2017

The Disappeared

The statistics, the names, the stories continue to pile up, an almost “normalisation” of the crimes taking place—anyone, doing anything, might disappear. Until one day, until this time, it is one of our own.

July 21, 2017
July 21, 2017

Enforced disappearance - The burden of proof

According to several past reports published by Human Rights Watch, Privacy International, and Swedish Media, there has been a rise...

May 28, 2016
May 28, 2016

People can't just go 'missing'!

When nine people mysteriously go “missing” from two villages of the same upazila in less than a month, including three members of the same family...

May 26, 2016
May 26, 2016

Disappearance panic spreads in Pabna villages

Panic grips two villages in Faridpur upazila of the district as nine people hailing from there went missing in less than five weeks after being picked up by people claiming to be law enforcers.

April 27, 2016
April 27, 2016

People feeling insecure: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir says people have no security of their lives at present as killings and enforced disappearances are going on across the country.

April 24, 2016
April 24, 2016

Culture of impunity led to more killings: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir says that increased incidents of killings have arisen out of a prevailing culture of impunity in Bangladesh.

December 7, 2015
December 7, 2015

Where have all the missing persons gone?

The statistics are frightening for any society that prides itself on its civilisational credentials, and even more so for any government....

December 4, 2015
December 4, 2015

Families of disappeared 19 for govt intervention

Families of the 19 persons, who were picked up allegedly by law enforcers about two years ago and never returned, demands the government to take necessary steps to find them.

March 23, 2015
March 23, 2015

Govt using law enforcers to crush movement: BNP

BNP accuses government of carrying out killings, abductions and repression on the 20-party alliance men using law enforcement agencies and its political cadres

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