Kalyan Party Secretary General Aminur ‘missing’

Bangladesh Kalyan Party Secretary General M M Aminur Rahman remained “missing” since Sunday, said Major General (rtd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, chairman of the party.

“He went traceless after he came out of the party office in Nayapaltan area around 10:00pm on August 27,” he told The Daily Star tonight.  

Shiblee Noman, additional deputy commissioner (Motijheel zone) of police, told The Daily Star that family members today filed a general diary with Paltan Police Station in this regard.

Meanwhile, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, in a statement today, said, “Aminur was abducted on August 27 while he was on the way to his residence in Savar.” Bangladesh Kalyan Party is a component of BNP- led 20-party alliance.

Khaleda Zia, in her statement, also came down heavily on the government alleging that the country has turned into a ground for “unbridled murder, abduction and enforced disappearances”.

The BNP chief said, “Since Awami League (AL)’s ascension into power, the country has turned into a ground for unbridled murder, abduction and enforced disappearances.”

Read Also: Enforced Disappearances: Beyond any 'probe'

She also alleged that the government is desperate to cling on to power by creating a “single-party social and political system”.

Expressing her concern over the repeated incidents of “enforced disappearance”, she claimed that, “The government itself staging the incidents of disappearances in a bid to cover its recent precedent of excessive display of power.”

‘Over 1,000 victims of forced disappearance’: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today claimed that more than “one thousand people” have been victims of forced disappearance in the country since 2009.

 “Incidents of enforced disappearance are on the rise and it took a sharp rise in last one week. This is a crime against humanity,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told journalists at a press conference at party’s Nayapaltan headquarters.

He also said it is the responsibility of the government to find out the people who have been victims of forced disappearance and to return them to their families.

Read More: NHRC worried over enforced disappearances

Urging the government to stop the crime immediately, Fakhrul alleged that the incumbent government does not even observe the UN's 'International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances' as it has been indulging in such crime.

Presenting a documentary on the party leaders and activists who have been allegedly abducted by law enforcing agencies, the BNP leader quoting Ain O Salish Kendra said around 539 people have been victims of enforced disappearances since 2009 to June this year while Odhikar said the number is 384.

“But the actual figure is much higher,” Fakhrul said.