Find the missing

EDITORIAL

Families in despair as cases of disappearance remain unsolved

We can empathise with Shabnam Zaman's despair at the apparent lack of movement by law enforcers in investigating how her father, former ambassador Maroof Zaman, went missing under dubious circumstances on December 4, 2017. His family members are in the dark as to who picked him up and where he is now. The one common thread that unites the families of the disappeared in our country is their loved ones' hope that they be returned unharmed.

It is difficult to imagine why no law enforcement agency has any clue as to what happened to Mr Zaman. The facts are very clear. The gentleman in question left in his car to pick up his daughter from the airport. Some time later, he called the residence and asked family members to hand over his laptop to someone who'd be going to the house. The footage of these people is there and yet, after a year of knocking on every conceivable door, the family is nowhere near finding the truth as to who took him and why, and whether Mr Zaman is alive or dead.

Human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra's data tells us that as many as 544 people have fallen victim to alleged enforced disappearance between 2010 and July 2018. And that over 300 of them are still missing. The calls for forming an empowered independent commission to investigate these disappearances have all but fallen on deaf ears and year after year, families like that of Mr Zaman live with the knowledge of not knowing what happened to their loved ones. Too many of these cases have remained unsolved, which is hardly helpful in increasing faith of the people on the state of law and order in the country. It is time the authorities raised the veil on these unsolved cases and launched vigorous investigations to find the missing people. 

• Courtesy: The Daily Star/ Dec 05, 2018