Bangladesh plans new directorate for victims of disappearances, killings and affected families

The government plans a new directorate for victims of enforced disappearances and killings during the Awami League’s rule and their families, Liberation War Affairs Minister Ahmed Azam Khan has said.

The ministry reviewed the proposal at an inter-ministerial meeting on Sunday, according to a media statement. 

The proposed directorate will operate under the Liberation War affairs ministry.

Azam said the state wanted to formally recognise those who made sacrifices during the long struggle to restore democracy, including people who disappeared, were brutally killed or subjected to extrajudicial killings, lost their eyesight, became disabled or spent years in jail on hundreds of false cases.

“Just as the July Mass Uprising Directorate was established for those affected by the July Mass Uprising, the state wants to formally recognise these sacrifices,” he said.

Explaining the move, he said: “This state recognition and the establishment of the directorate are steps towards building a permanent safeguard so that no fascist force can deprive people of their democratic rights in this way in the future, and no mother, father, husband, wife or child has to lose a loved one to such medieval brutality.”

State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Ishraque Hossain said the 1971 Liberation War was rooted in the ideals of freedom, human rights, an end to state violence and a democratic system based on direct voting rights.

He said those ideals had been undermined since 2009 through the denial of voting rights, state-backed enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.