‘Hasina aunty, please bring my father back’

Ikram Hossain Ahad, son of missing M Hossain Chanchal, urged: “Hasina aunty, please bring my father back. I want to perform prayers with him.” Chanchal, a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal activist, went missing on the night of December 2, 2013  - one month before the January 2014 parliamentary won by the Awami League of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Chanchal's wife, Reshma, says her husband and his five friends - Zahirul Islam, Parvez Hossain, M Sohel, Pavel and Mithu - were in front of the Shishu Park in Shahbag area that night. "When Pavel and Mithu went to bring some snacks and tickets, some people came and started beating her husband and three other friends," she said. “Pavel and Mithu immediately fled the scene, while the plainclothes men were picking their friends up in a white microbus.” After that, the family members of Chanchal looked for him in the Head Office of Detective Branch of Police, different police stations, jails, hospitals and other places. But they could not trace him, said his wife. It is not only Chanchal: the family members of 19 other people allegedly picked up by law enforcers about three years ago are still waiting for them, not knowing whether they are alive or dead.'I want my son back'In the intervening time, the parents of some of the missing persons have died, the families said in a press release. Hajera Khatun, the mother of missing BNP leader Sajedul Islam, said her husband had died without knowing the fate of their son. "I don’t know whether he is alive or not. I just want to know this before my death. I want my son back, please,” Hajera said. Most of the missing people were students. Some of them were leaders and activists of the BNP and its affiliated bodies, according to the family members. In the two months before the January 2014 national election, a total of 20 people went missing or were allegedly picked up by members of law enforcing agencies. Khalid Hasan Sohel went missing on November 28 from Old Dhaka Central Jail gate area, Al Amin on December 3 from Bashundhara residential area, Nizam Uddin Munna and Tariqul Islam Jhantu from Dakkhinkhan’s Mollartek on December 6, Mahbub Hasan and Kazi Farhad on December 7 from Sabujbagh area, while Selim Reza Pintu went missing from Mirpur’s Pallabi area on December 11. Sajedul, Zahidul Karim Tanvir and Mazharul Islam Rasel went missing from Paschim Nakhalpara, Abdul Quader Bhuiyan Masum from Purba Nakhalpara, and Asaduzzaman Rana from Mugdapara. MA Adnan Chowdhury, Kawsar Ahmed, Samrat Molla, and Tariqul Islam Tara were allegedly picked up by law enforcers around the same time from different areas of Dhaka city.