Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed has called on parliament to pass a strict law to ensure that no one ever becomes a victim of enforced disappearance or murder in the future, as lawmakers unanimously agreed on creating a swift legal framework to protect families of the disappeared and ensure maximum punishment for perpetrators.
The remarks came on Sunday during the eighth day of the 13th parliament session, following an emotional speech by Dhaka-14 MP Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman about his experience in “Ayna Ghar” (mirror rooms) and enforced disappearance.
Standing on a point of order, Arman described the horrors of being held in a dark room. “I was counting the hours of death in that dark Ayna Ghar. I felt like I was in a living grave. I could not understand day or night outside. I thought perhaps I would die there,” he said.
“This parliament must be called a gathering of the oppressed. You will not find a single person here who was not a victim of oppression during the past fascist era,” he added, noting that hundreds like him were taken to such rooms, many of whom never returned.
Arman recalled being taken out one night, believing he was going to be killed. He said he started reciting Surah Yasin so that death would be easy, but later learned that the courageous actions of some young people gave them the opportunity to see the light of the world again.
Stunned by a recommendation to repeal the law on preventing enforced disappearance and the Human Rights Commission, Arman questioned, “Why is it being recommended to repeal the law enacted so that such oppression never happens again on Bengali soil?”
In response, Law Minister Advocate Md Asaduzzaman criticised the current ordinance on enforced disappearance. “The law they are making a fuss about, perhaps they have not examined it properly,” he said.
He noted that the ICT Act of 1973 includes enforced disappearance as a “crime against humanity” with maximum punishment of death, while the current ordinance prescribes only 10 years. “This is a form of injustice to the victims of enforced disappearance,” the minister said.
The law minister also pointed out a dual policy regarding investigation of such cases and promised that a stricter law on enforced disappearance would be enacted in the future.
