“We still expect Ilias Ali will be back among us and in his family, and his little girl will be able to call him papa,” said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
He said their party also believes all the disappeared people will return to their families.
Fakhrul came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after visiting the family members of former BNP organising secretary M Ilias Ali who went missing along with his driver, Ansar Ali, on the midnight of 17 April, 2012. Since then, BNP has been blaming security agencies for his mysterious disappearance, an allegation denied by the government.
The BNP secretary general went to Ilias Ali’s Banani house in the evening and talked to his wife Tahsin Rushdir Luna, elder son Abrar Ilias and daughter Saiara Nawal.
He accused Awami government of initiating the culture of enforced disappearance in the country in 2011-2012. “Later, our many leaders and activists and trade union leaders were made disappeared.”
Fakhrul said still many people remained traceless. “Their family members have long been waiting with a hope to get them back, but only getting disappointed with the passage of time.”
He said the government has created an unprecedented frightening situation in the country by making people disappeared.
The BNP secretary general also alleged that the government has been in power by resorting to repressive acts as it has got isolated from people.
“Awami League is inventing new techniques one after another to suppress its opponents. They annihilated a strong voice and brave person like Ilias Ali who never bowed down to anybody and thus created a culture of phobia,” he observed.
Fakhrul also said people want to get rid of such culture and the prevailing situation in the country. “We think the fall of such repressive regime can be ensured through a united movement of people.”