IGP plays down abductions, disappearances

Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque yesterday said abduction and enforced disappearances are nothing new in the country.

"The crimes have been taking place since the ancient period," he told journalists after inaugurating the newly-built main gate of Chandpur Police Lines.

The IGP made the remarks amid growing concerns over the disappearances of a journalist, a university teacher and at least eight others in recent times.

Asked about the disappearances of the journalist and the teacher, Shahidul said police were trying hard to rescue them.

He claimed that the law enforcers solved the mysteries behind 75 percent of the abduction cases and rescued the victims. "We can't solve the other 25 percent due to various problems."

He further claimed that many foreigners have praised the law and order situation in the country.

Utpal Das, a senior reporter of online news portal purboposhchimbd.news, went missing on October 10 while Mubashar Hasan, assistant professor of political science at North South University, on Tuesday in the capital, said their family members.

Plainclothes men picked up Tanvir Yasin Karim, a book importer, from his house in the capital on Wednesday morning.

According to rights body Ain o Salish Kendra, as many as 524 people have become victims of enforced disappearance between 2010 and October 2017 in Bangladesh and more than 334 of them are still missing.

Many of the 524 had returned to their families while bodies of some were found. Others were found shown arrested in different cases by the law enforcers. The ASK reckons the number of such people stood at 190 in the last seven and a half years.