Among all the photos hung on the wall of her office, one particular frame strikes every sensitive visitor. It shows five members of a family posing together, likely taken during a vacation in Sylhet or elsewhere. The picture radiates the warmth of a traditional Bengali family- M Ilias Ali, his wife Tahsina Rushdir Luna, their two sons and daughter, all wearing bright smiles.

Right opposite the photo frame, sitting in a chair, Luna was recounting to the Daily Sun how a sudden storm devastated their well-organised life in an instant.

Tears were rolling down her cheeks. Simultaneously, anger was evident in her eyes. Though she was struggling to control her emotions, she was determined to share her thoughts regarding the state-sponsored enforced disappearances that took place in Bangladesh over the fifteen and a half years of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime.

A group of law enforcement agency members allegedly picked up Ilias Ali, the then organising secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), when he left Hotel Ruposhi Bangla near Shahbagh in the capital on 17 April 2012. His driver Md Ansar has also since remained missing.

Since then, Luna has been going through the contemporaneous feelings of agony and ire.

"If the state, using its administrative apparatus, does such an inhuman act with a person, this cannot be accepted. It must not weaponise its machinery to target individuals," she said in an interview at her Banani political office in the capital.

She said if a state opposes someone, it is impossible to fight against it. "You can combat against an individual or a party, but you cannot confront the state," she observed.

Speaking about the grief she and her children have been bearing over the years, Luna said they have no words to describe it. "Almost thirteen and a half years have passed. My children are feeling the absence of a guardian every moment. In case of any problem, children go to their father for a solution. But my sons and daughters do not get him. My children and I will never be able to express what we feel inside," she shared.

Yet Luna and family members of other victims often need to address different programmes or give interviews to the media, especially before the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, taking the pain of going through the memories.     

“We speak so that such incidents are not repeated in Bangladesh. Exemplary punishment must be ensured for the perpetrators involved in such cruel acts,” she added.

According to Luna, a culture of impunity was established here, and the number of crimes gradually escalated to reach this level as the country was ruled by an autocrat for many years.

“It ultimately allowed culprits to be free of accountability. The state itself got involved with so many offences and destroyed all its organs,” she observed.

Recalling the day when Ilias Ali was taken away, Luna said police informed them that his car was found abandoned by the road, and neither her husband nor the driver was there.

She immediately shared the matter with BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and called journalists. Consequently, party leaders and reporters came to their house in the middle of the night.

“Things were suspicious. How could two people disappear suddenly? Law enforcement agency members visited our place. But they seemed to have a perfunctory attitude,” Luna remembered.

“Several days later, even the home minister came. The incident stormed the whole country, and BNP was observing consecutive hartals and hunger strikes across Bangladesh, but the police operated no drive until we gave any information to them,” she said.

Law enforcement agencies neither arrested nor interrogated any suspect in connection with the incident, she claimed.

“Then we realised that they might be involved in the incident and it might be an incident of enforced disappearance as BNP leader Chowdhury Alam, Sylhet’s Iftekhar Ahmed Dinar and another boy named Junaid were made to disappear by the law enforcers earlier,” Luna added.

Asked about her meeting with then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on 2 May 2012, the wife of Ilias Ali said some people in the government suggested that she do so.

“I talked to Madam (Khaleda Zia) in this regard. She said if a person can be returned if you meet her, then go,” she said.

Recalling their conversation, Luna said Sheikh Hasina assured her of “doing everything” to rescue Ilias Ali alive, but she did not keep her word.

“As always, she said she knows the pain of losing loved ones and advised my children to concentrate on studies, as sometimes it takes time to rescue missing persons. But later we understood that all she did was to curb the movement of BNP,” Luna said.

She said later, when they wanted to meet the then-prime minister again, they were denied an appointment.

Luna, also a former deputy registrar of Dhaka University, described the role of the police as frustrating, saying they only visited their house initially following the instructions of the High Court to update the family on their findings. “But later, they did nothing except installing CCTV cameras in the house for some days.”

In response to another question, she said, “Since the incident, Begum Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir tried their best to know what happened to Ilias Ali using their own channels. But naturally, it was difficult for them to do anything for the fascist government.”

“I met Madam at her Gulshan office. The acting chairman [Tarique Rahman] used to inquire after us. The party secretary general came to our house numerous times to see my children,” she added.

Asked about the family of missing driver Md Ansar, Luna said his mother died two years back and his wife and child are now staying in London.

No one from the interim government has contacted her since they assumed office. The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances called all families of the victims to file complaints, and Ilias Ali’s family filed their one.

“The commission gave us an idea about the techniques of the perpetrators. One group picked my husband from Ruposhi Bangla and handed him over to another group in front of Jalkhabar in Mohakhali. The two groups were not familiar with each other,” she said.

Indicating the shortcomings of the commission, Luna said, “The commission can investigate incidents to find out what happened, but cannot take action. It is not mandated to arrest culprits or bring them into remand. If they are not detained and remanded, why will they admit their crimes?”

As a result, the commission is failing to function accordingly, she opined.

Victims’ families were also asked to lodge complaints to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) as they included the provision of trying offenders related to the disappearances, terming it a crime against humanity amid the absence of a law to deal with such cases.

Luna said, “The ICT said they are investigating the matter, but the chief prosecutor describes everything in front of the media even before completion of the inquiry. We are completely dissatisfied with the works of the tribunal.”

“They told me to file a case. We have already filed a GD and writ petition. According to the rules, filing a case is not essential for the trial. It can take cognisance of a complaint based on a verbal or written complaint. But they are not doing this.”

Luna said the prosecution told them that they would talk later, but they probably failed to manage time for it.

Replying to a question about why an influential leader like Ilias Ali, also former general secretary of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, was targeted and whether any international players were disturbed by him, Luna said, “He organised a long march towards the Jaflong border where people of all strata from Sylhet took part, protesting the Indian government’s plan to construct the Tipaimukh Dam. Maybe it annoyed some quarters,” she said.

“Besides, he was strengthening the party in the Sylhet division and engaging a huge number of people in the BNP’s programmes. He told me that when the then prime minister went to Sylhet, she asked others how Ilias Ali could mobilise so many people doing opposition politics. They filed many cases against him, but being unable to stop him, they chose this inhuman path,” she added.

Luna has been doing everything to complete her husband’s unfulfilled dreams. Her eldest son M Abrar Ilias is now a barrister, while her youngest son M Labib Sharar is doing a job in London and about to complete his graduation in finance and accounting from a reputed university there and her only daughter Saiyara Nawal is studying economics at BRAC University.

People of Biswanath and Osmaninagar upazilas in Sylhet were an extended family for M Ilias Ali, but he could not fulfil their aspirations. Now, Luna, an adviser to the BNP Chairperson, is concentrating on this.

She is taking all preparations to take part in the next general election from the Sylhet-2 constituency. With the huge support, love and sympathy of the locals, she has managed to retain the BNP stronghold there.

Asked what her plans will be to make a new Bangladesh if elected, Luna said, “Fascist Sheikh Hasina was ousted through an anti-discrimination movement. Now, our politicians have to change their mindset. We have to come out of the old culture of defaming others and instead work for establishing a harmonious political culture. As a politician, I will try to win people’s hearts, but I will never harm my opponent with dirty propaganda.”

The reporter can be reached at: [email protected]

Edited by Abdul Mukith