Mayer Daak

Bangladesh Awami League came to power after winning the national election of December 2008 against the backdrop of a turmoil political condition after two consecutive regimes of BNP (2001–2006) and military-backed civil government (2007–2008) who were largely criticized for promoting extrajudicial killing with a view to reducing crime.

Prior to the election, Awami League promised to put an end to the spate of extrajudicial killing by government agencies and custodial deaths. However, this practice never ended.

In 2010, due to the former Prime Minister and BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia’s eviction from her house, BNP started taking streets while on the other hand, their ally Jamaat-e-Islami supporters started demanding the release of their leaders who were involved in war-crime during Liberation War of Bangladesh.

In this context, the government started taking repressive measures against the opposition groups and a few opposition leaders and their activists started disappearing under mysterious situation. The first victim to be recorded was a Dhaka City Corporation councilor Mohammad Chowdhury Alam who was also a member of BNP’s central committee. He was abducted on June 25, 2010.[6]

After Chowdhury Alam, many other disappeared after being picked up by Police, RAB or DB, including a former minister, and many former Member of Parliament. Remarkably, a series of incidents of enforced disappearance occurred just before the national election of January 2014.[7]

The families of the victims of enforced disappearance started gathering together to ask the whereabouts of their loved ones from 2014 and have been observing the “International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances” in Bangladesh.

A mother with a photo of her son who became a victim of forced disappearance in 2013 (image by VOA)

The name "Mayer Daak" started being visible on local and international media from 2016, after it was founded on 12 March of the same year. The Human Rights Watch report on Bangladesh's enforced disappearance "We don’t have them" and "Joint NGO Alternative Report to the UN Human Rights Committee on Bangladesh" published in 2017 cited the name of this platform and the ordeals of the families.[8]

The first major gathering by the platform was a discussion organized on December 4, 2016, where family members of 20 enforced disappearance victims attended and narrated how their family members were picked up and never returned.[9]

Mayer Daak has been observing the UN declared International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance and International Human Rights Day in Bangladesh since 2016. The platform is also credited for bringing the incidents of enforced disappearance, which is often taken lightly by the government, to the forefront of Bangladesh's politics.[10]

They observed International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance on August 29, 2017 by organizing a discussion at the National Press Club of Bangladesh. 29 families came to join the hearing in presence of the noted citizens including Professor Asif Nazrul.[11]

To mark the International Day of Human Rights in 2017, Mayer Daak called for a gathering on December 10 of the year. Members of 24 families came together. By the April 2018, the platform managed to mobilize 85 families of the victims who disappeared during Awami League rule, between 2010 and 2017, and organized a mass-hearing on April 21 of the year where they detailed their ordeals and demanded the government to let them know what happened to their family members.[12]

On August 30, 2018, the platform organized a programme attended by at least 90 families.[13]

Amid repeated calls and outcry, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh also the chief of Bangladesh Awami League, Sheikh Hasina opened up at the parliament in November 2017. She said: "As per statistics of 2009, 275,000 British citizens disappeared. Of them, the whereabouts of 20,000 is not known. If you consider America, the situation is even worse."[14]

In response to that, Bangladesh's major opposition group Bangladesh Nationalist Party's General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said: "The remarks about enforced disappearance that the prime minister made is her admission to the fact that they [the government] are involved in the incidents of enforced disappearance."[15]

Bangladesh's Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the allegation that the government is pursuing a policy of enforced disappearance is totally baseless. He added: "Many businessmen went into hiding failing to repay their loans in this country. Some people went missing after developing extramarital relationship."[16]

United Nations human rights experts have called on Bangladesh to act now to halt an increasing number of enforced disappearances in the country, in February 2017.[17]

In July 2017, New York-based rights defender group Human Rights Watch published a report on the enforced disappearance of Bangladeshis. Referring to the incidents, Brad Adams, the Asia Director of the organization said: "The Bangladesh government is making a habit of complete disregard for human rights, human life, and the rule of law."[18]

On July 28, 2018, The New York Times published an opinion piece titled: "The Opposition disappears in Bangladesh" on the incidents of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh.[19]

• List of people who disappeared