BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. File Photo

DHAKA, Aug 29, 2025 (BSS) – BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir called upon all to work together to bring every officer of the law enforcement agencies responsible for enforced disappearances, starting with Sheikh Hasina, to justice and ensure strict punishment.

He made the call in a message issued here today on the eve of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

Mirza Fakhrul also urged the interim government to sincerely take the utmost initiative to establish justice by ensuring proper rehabilitation and security for the victims of enforced disappearances and their families, and to find and return the victims of enforced disappearances to their families. 

He said as per the decision of the United Nations, this international day is observed every year on August 30 since 2011 to mobilize efforts to rescue the victims of enforced disappearances worldwide, to commemorate them and to express condolences to their family members.

In December 2010, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, an international treaty that came into force, declared August 30 as International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, he said. 

On this occasion, the BNP secretary general expressed his deep concern for the victims of enforced disappearances and extended his sincere condolences to their families. 

Sheikh Hasina’s tyranny was full of crimes against humanity such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, he said.

Before the fall, the terror of enforced disappearances prevailed in Bangladesh during the Awami regime, he said, adding the most widespread enforced disappearances were committed by the authoritarian government. 

It was a phenomenon of the Awami League regime to use the law enforcement agencies to pick up opposition leaders and activists and make them disappeared.

They made the people of opposition parties and views disappeared for a short time, for a long time, or forever, he added. 

Over a decade and a half, more than 700 people became victims of enforced disappearances, he mentioned. 

Numerous BNP students and youth, including public representatives like M. Elias Ali, Saiful Islam Hiru and Chowdhury Alam, and people from different walks of life have been victims of enforced disappearance. 

The aim was to eliminate opposition political leaders and activists, including opposition voices, he added.