How many people go missing in the US every month, Quader asks Peter Haas

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Wednesday said Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury had visited the US so that the country imposes a ban on Bangladesh, but BNP’s mission has failed.

“No outcome will be there by telling the falsehood over disappearances .... the Washington DC mission of Amir Khasru has failed,” he said while speaking at a meeting held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital, marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day.

Prime Minister and AL president Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting.

“They (BNP) sought sanctions on Bangladesh. But, the United States and the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on 70 people in 20 countries, and there was no name for Bangladesh. Despite that, they hired lobbyists (to impose sanctions on Bangladesh),” he said.

He said US Ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas today visited the home of Sajjadul Sumon (Sajedul Islam), who went missing in 2013.

“I politely want to ask him how many people go missing in the United States every month, how many women are raped and how many people are killed ... we are watching the scenario of USA through CNN,” the AL general secretary said.

“Mr. Peter Haas, today is 14 December. If you went to the Intellectual Memorial, it would have been better,” he added in his speech.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said there are many BNP men, who went missing willingly to avoid trial of cases filed against them.

BNP leader Salahuddin himself went to India, he said, adding, “You should know the stories of these disappearances”.

The BNP hired a lobbyist and his name is Toby Cadman, a British lawyer, he said.

Toby Cadman told Al Jazeera in an interview that he asked the United States and the United Kingdom to impose sanctions on Bangladesh and its police and RAB, while the US kept its word but the UK did not keep his request, Quader said.

AL presidium members -- Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abdur Razzaque and Abdur Rahman, its joint general secretaries Mahbubul Alam Hanif and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, organising secretary Afzal Hossain, health and population affairs secretary Rokeya Sultana, Dhaka south city unit AL general secretary Humayun Kabir and Dhaka north city unit AL general secretary SM Mannan Kochi also spoke at the meeting.

AL publicity and publication affairs secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap and deputy publicity and publication secretary Aminul Islam Amin jointly moderated the meeting.