The Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance will march toward the National Parliament this Sunday to protest the oil, gas, electricity and fertilizer crises and to demand swift justice in enforced-disappearance cases. The program will be held with victims of enforced disappearance and their family members, to mark International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
The 11-party alliance held a meeting Wednesday at the leader of the opposition’s residence at 29 Minto Road in the capital, chaired by Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Shafiqur Rahman. After the meeting, National Citizen Party (NCP) convener Nahid Islam announced the program at a press conference.
According to the alliance’s announcement, the march toward the National Parliament will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 30, with family members of enforced-disappearance victims taking part. The alliance will also demand that trials of enforced-disappearance cases from the Awami League government’s tenure be completed swiftly.
A bill on the “Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Remedy Act” is expected to be tabled during the parliament’s third session on Thursday. The move to draft new legislation follows the repeal of the enforced-disappearance-prevention ordinance issued during the interim government’s tenure.
Opposition parties allege that the new law would place investigative authority over enforced-disappearance complaints in the hands of police — even though police are accused in most such complaints. They argue that leaving investigations to the very force being accused will not produce a fair or impartial outcome.
After the meeting, Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Hamidur Rahman Azad said the country is currently experiencing widespread hardship, including gas, electricity, oil and fertilizer crises. He said the government’s failures are visible everywhere, and that the entire nation is facing multiple crises at once.
He said parliament is in session, but the July Charter and the mandate of the public verdict are not being implemented. Families of enforced-disappearance victims still don’t know where their relatives are, he said. In the past, many people were subjected to extrajudicial disappearance and killing, and these cases have still not been tried.
With these issues in mind, Hamidur Rahman Azad said, the 11-party alliance will march toward the National Parliament at 3 p.m. on August 30 with family members of enforced-disappearance victims.
Leaders of the 11-party alliance were present at the meeting.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report