Human rights organisation Odhikar held a rally and human chain in Mymensingh on Sunday to observe the International Day Against Enforced Disappearances and remember people subjected to disappearance. The programme was moderated by Odhikar Mymensingh coordinator and Mymensingh Press Club general secretary Abdul Qayum. Speakers included NCP Mymensingh district convenor Advocate ATM Mahbubul Alam, disappearance survivor Golam Mostafa, journalist Abdul Awal and Abdul Bari of the city Jamaat youth wing.

Golam Mostafa said he was taken away by people in plain clothes despite being a factory worker. He alleged that RAB kept him disappeared for 96 days and subjected him to inhuman torture to force a confession branding him a militant. He demanded that disappeared people be traced, their families’ safety and rights ensured, and those involved be tried through an impartial investigation.

Speakers alleged that enforced disappearance was used to suppress dissent and political opponents during the Awami League government’s more than 15-year rule. They said expectations of justice and remedy after its fall have not been fully realised under the BNP government. They also criticised the failure to pass the 2025 ordinance on preventing and remedying disappearances, and voiced concern over allegations of new cases after the July mass uprising.