Sanjida Islam Tulee MP, chief coordinator of Maayer Daak, which aworks on enforced disappearances, has said that twenty-two people were picked up from different parts of Dhaka in just the two weeks before the 2014 election.

“Enforced disappearances were not isolated incidents but interconnected acts targeting opposition activists for political reasons,” she said on Wednesday while accompanying family members of enforced disappearance victims to a meeting with the Chief Prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal Md. Aminul Islam.

They met the Chief Prosecutor to enquire about the progress of the legal proceedings.

She said active members, organisers and influential figures of opposition parties were systematically targeted ahead of elections.

When disappearances are carried out with state involvement, evidence is often deliberately destroyed, making it difficult to investigate the incidents and establish the facts, Tulee added.

Highlighting links between different disappearance cases, Tulee said individuals connected to the abduction of two people in Laksam and those involved in the seven-murder case in Narayanganj’s Shitalakshya River had also been implicated in similar incidents of enforced disappearance.

She said political opponents, campaigners, organisers and prominent figures had been selectively abducted from different areas, with eyewitnesses to some of the incidents.

A systematic review of the incidents would reveal the involvement of an organised network and links between the cases, she said.

Tulee stressed the need to strengthen the capacity of the International Crimes Tribunal to ensure speedy investigations and trials in enforced disappearance cases.

She said it could be difficult for a single tribunal to deal with the huge number of serious crimes, including enforced disappearances over the past 17 years, extrajudicial killings and mass killings during the July uprising.

Government cooperation is essential to investigate and prosecute such a large number of human rights violations, she said.

If necessary, additional tribunals should be established and more investigative units formed, while the manpower, expertise and overall capacity of investigation teams should be increased to speed up the process.

Tulee said all necessary measures should be taken to expedite investigations and bring those responsible to justice, ending the long wait of victims' families.

She said the families wanted every incident to be investigated and justice ensured for all victims.