NHRC Chief Demands Probe into Ilias’ Disappearance

DHAKA NEWS

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman on Saturday urged the government to probe the disappearance of BNP leader M Ilias Ali in shortest possible time and make the findings public.

“It is the government’s duty to ensure security of every citizen. Not only Ilias, the government should disclose the fact if any of its citizen disappears,” the NHRC chief said.

Citing the prime minister’s instruction for a probe into the disappearance of Ilias, who went missing Tuesday night, the NHRC chairman said the law enforcing agencies should expedite the investigation.

He told reporters after inaugurating an advocacy meeting on combating violence against women at Brac Centre Inn at Mohakhali in the city in the morning.

When the newsmen sought his comment on Detective Branch's failure in identifying the killers of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, the NHRC chief said the authorities concerned should take action against investigators or members of an investigation agency when they confessed that they failed to probe into an incident.

The authorities should not assign them for investigation into any other cases, he said.

Sagar, news editor at private TV station Maasranga, and his wife Runi, a senior reporter at another TV channel ATN Bangla, was killed at their residence on February 10. The High Court on April 18 ordered to shift the murder case to Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) as detectives failed to identify the killer.

Asked about the human rights commission’s role in investigation into the incidents of human rights violations, Rahman told reporters on Saturday that the commission itself probed a number of such incidents.

“We submitted the probe findings and recommendations to the home ministry,” he said.

Asked whether the commission got involvement of any law enforcing agency during the investigation, the NHRC chairman replied that the probes found their involvement in one or two cases.