HUMAN RIGHTS DAY TODAY: Fear, despair over disappearances

One morning two and a half years back, Rahmatullah Sentu, a transport owner, was returning home from a lawyer's office in Old Dhaka with his wife Baishakhi Afreen.

As they reached Goal Nagar Lane, eight to 10 men in ordinary clothes came from nowhere and dragged Rahmatullah into a microbus.

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With the couple shouting, people on the congested road came forward, stopped the microbus and even wrestled with the group.

But, as the family and witnesses allege, several armed personnel in Rab uniform turned up and dispersed the crowd by charging batons. 

The microbus went away, taking Rahmatullah.

His wife Baishakhi Afreen filed an abduction case with Kotwali Police Station on April 15, 2014, six days after the incident.

The man is still missing.

He is among at least 300 persons who have become victims of enforced disappearance since January 2013.

They were either picked up by people identifying themselves as law enforcers or their families claimed the abductors were members of law enforcement agencies. 

Many could not be traced, while some fortunate ones returned.

Some victims, who had remained missing for long with their families worrying about their fate, were suddenly produced before the media as arrestees by law enforcers. 

According to rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), the number of disappearance victims from January to November this year is at least 89 people.

It was 55 last year, 88 in 2014 and 68 in 2013. 

FADING HOPE

In the Rahmatullah abduction case, the authorities have changed the investigation officer (IO) twice. The third one is from the CID while previous two were from Kotwali police and DB.

Last month, the IO called in Baishakhi to ask her what Rahmatullah was wearing while being picked up on April 9, 2014.

“The officer said he would go through pictures of some unidentified dead bodies to see if Sentu is there,” she told this newspaper.

“My hope of finding him alive has faded away after meeting the IO.” 

In a general diary (GD) lodged with the Kotwali police a month after the abduction, Baishakhi mentioned that people present there kept the microbus confined after her husband was pulled into it.

“A couple of minutes later, three to four men -- in Rab uniform and equipped with arms -- baton-charged the crowd to make way for the microbus.”

The Rab members later left the place in two Rab vehicles, said the GD, filed on May 11, 2014. 

The GD also read eight to 10 policemen on duty at the spot told her that the men in Rab uniform were members of Rapid Action Battalion-10. 

She didn't make mention of Rab in the case statement, and the reason behind this, according to the GD, is that she was then not sure about Rab's involvement. 

“Afterwards, learning from different people and inquiring at various places, I have become sure about the involvement of Rab members. The matter should be included in the case document,” Baishakhi wrote in the GD.

'COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE'

Executive director (acting) of ASK Nur Khan said enforced disappearance is “completely unacceptable” and judicial probe should be opened for each of such incidents.

Contacted, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said law enforcers never pick up people secretly. They make arrests openly and place the arrestees before the court as per the law.

He also said there were incidents in which criminals were caught posing as law enforcers and kidnapping people.

Former National Human Rights Commission chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman said, “If they [law enforcers] think that they have fulfilled their duties by saying there is no such thing like disappearance and some people are just hiding willingly, they live in a fool's paradise. No one is going to buy this anywhere in the world.”

Ensuring security of the citizens is a fundamental responsibility of the state, he said.

“Even if we go by the home minister's recent comment that those who disappeared have willingly gone into hiding, we should remember that it is the primary responsibility of the state agencies to find them as it has become a public concern.”

According to law, arrestees must be produced before a court within 24 hours of the arrest. 

A number of law enforcement officials wishing anonymity said sometimes they pick up suspects and keep them in custody for long to make them admit offences. Hardcore criminals or militants do not admit their offences during a short period of remand. 

Mohammad Ashraful Alam, an associate professor of Department of Criminology and Police Science at Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, termed the practice unnecessary.

“The police force has talented officers with foreign trainings and they are capable of making a thorough investigation without compromising human rights,” he said.

Recently, the father of a government medical officer filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking necessary orders upon the authorities concerned to find his son.

AKM Nurul Alam said his son Muhammed Iqbal Mahmud was abducted from the capital's Science Lab area on October 15.

A CCTV clip shows seven to eight people forcibly taking Iqbal into a microbus soon after he had alighted from a bus at the intersection.

The microbus then speeds away and a pickup, seemingly belonging to police, is seen following it.

A police official said they suspect Iqbal has involvement with militant group “Neo JMB”.

On July 14, some people claiming to be law enforcers took away Yasin Mohammad Abdus Samad Talukder, a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin from Kakoli bus stop.

He was an accused in a case filed with Shahbagh Police Station on February 9 with Gulshan café attacker Nibras Islam.

Yasin's mother Suriya Parveen Talukder, a retired government physician, said two days after the abduction, law enforcers searched her apartment and took away Yasin's laptop and computer. This made her strongly suspect that her son was taken by them.

Suriya said as no agency admitted picking up her son, she hired an informant of law enforcement agencies and gave him Tk 50 lakh in instalments for her son's release.

On September 29, physician Riyad Naser Chowdhury was dragged into a microbus from Purabi Cinema at Pallabi.

Riyad is lucky as he could return home. But he and his family members mysteriously kept mum about who abducted him and where he was kept.