Adiba Islam Hridi says she is tired of holding a placard showing her missing father. She is only 12.
Hridi’s vacant eyes betray strain and weariness as she sat with around 20 other children inside an auditorium in Dhaka on Wednesday to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
The children had gathered along with their mothers and other family members to plead for the return of their fathers allegedly abducted by state agencies for their political affiliations and views.
The demonstration was organised by Maayer Daak, Benagli for Mother’s Call, an organisation formed in 2014 to seek justice for the victims of the enforced disappearances in Bangladesh.
Rights groups say more than 600 people disappeared since the Awami League government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power in 2009
This wait never ends’
Hridi’s father Parvez Hossain was a grassroots member of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He was taken away by policemen in plain clothes before the national elections in December 2013.
His whereabouts are still unknown.
“For the last 10 years, I have been told that my father will come back but this wait never ends. I want to be hugged by my father. I want to celebrate Father’s Day. I don’t want to be a part of this ‘Disappearance Day’ anymore,” Hridi said in her address at the demonstration.
“I simply want my husband back. We have no complaints against anyone,” said Tahmina Akter, wife of Ahmed bin Quasem, lawyer and son of an opposition leader, who has been missing since 2016.
“I am tired of living this life. I can’t give an answer to my daughters who keep asking where their father is,” she said.
Hummam Quader Chowdhury, son of jailed opposition leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, was abducted in 2016 and was missing for seven months.
