Govt indulges in enforced disappearance, abduction again: BNP

“The recent US sanctions on former and current seven RAB officials and intense pressure from local and foreign human rights bodies have brought some relief to families in fear of enforced disappearance and killing.  But, the government has again started involving in a horrible crime like enforced disappearance,” he said.

Citing examples, the BNP leader said the Khulna District unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) general secretary was picked up a few days ago while another JCD leader of Barguna Upazila unit was handed over to a police station after making him disappeared. “The inhuman behavior of this government is being repeated, which is unacceptable.”

He came up with the allegations at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, UNB reports.

Rizvi alleged that the government has been using RAB alongside the police force in carrying out the incidents of abduction and enforced disappearance.

He said the members of RAB were implicated in heinous  crimes by the government in the past turning the elite force into Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s a personal force.

“They (govt) later used the detective police and police force in carrying out abduction, enforced disappearance and the killing of people in the name of gunfights across the country. Now CID has been used to commit such crimes,” the BNP leader alleged.

He said the law enforcers in plainclothes first pick up opposition activists and common people and then make them disappear forever or kill them by putting on crossfire in the name of recovering weapons. “Sometimes the victims’ bodies are found near the roadside or in a ditch or river,” he observed.