BNP urged the interim government to take initiatives to ensure an investigation under the United Nations (UN) into the incidents of enforced disappearance took place during Awami League term.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demand while addressing a programme at the party’s Nayapaltan central office in Dhaka on Friday.

“I have been in politics for a long time... I knew about being arrested, I knew about being killed, but I did not know about enforced disappearance. Awami League committed horrible crimes against humanity by introducing the trend of enforced disappearance,” he said.

He said that the interim government signed the instrument of accession to a UN international convention aimed at preventing enforced disappearances on Thursday as a state party, however, the ousted Sheikh Hasina-led government did not do so.

“In this context, I am calling upon the interim government to take the initiative to ensure investigation under the UN into the incidents of enforced disappearance committed by the Awami League government during its 15 years of rule,” he said.

Meanwhile, the UN on Friday announced that it would deploy a fact-finding team to Bangladesh in the coming weeks to investigate the violence that took place from 1 July to 15 August.

Referring to the announcement, he said that all incidents of torture, persecution, murder, and disappearance that have been taking place in the country since 2009 should be investigated by the UN committee and the government should take necessary measures to assist them.

BDST: 2118 HRS, AUGUST 30, 2024
MSK