Mothers worried over Apratim’s murder, hundreds of questions on their minds

Thirteen-year-old Apratim left home on Friday afternoon carrying his mother’s iPhone. There has been no trace of him since. His mother may never have imagined that this would be the last time she saw her son. The afternoon passed into evening and the evening into night. But the boy did not return home.

Time kept passing as his family waited for the phone to ring and hoped to hear Apratim’s voice on the other end. Where had he gone? Who was he with? When would he return? Unknown fears gripped his parents. Eventually, a general diary was filed at Sadar Dakshin Model Police Station.

After a long wait, Apratim was found in the Sananda Forest of Lalmai Hill. However, his body was lifeless.

Similarly, 10-year-old Kamrunnahar Kali returned home from the market with her father on the afternoon of September 9. After handing the shopping bags to her mother, she left home again. She never returned.

Her sandal was found near their home. Her father filed a general diary at the police station the following day. Seven days later, last Thursday, Kali’s body was recovered from a ditch beside their home. Her body was found wrapped in a sack. Police said the child was raped and murdered. Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

News of children like Apratim or Kali going missing emerges frequently. Some return to their mothers’ arms. Others return as lifeless bodies after being murdered. Many others are never found by their families.

According to data from the Police Headquarters, general diaries were filed over the disappearance of 15,717 children during the seven months from January to July this year. Of them, 13,679 were recovered alive or dead. The whereabouts of 2,038 children remain unknown.

The disappearance and recovery of Apratim’s body have renewed concerns and anxiety among mothers across the country about the safety of their children.

Facebook posts made by his mother Nahida Nahid, a university teacher, seeking information about Apratim began spreading on social media on Friday night and Saturday morning. Numerous messages of grief for Apratim appeared in the comments under those posts. Many parents also expressed concerns about the safety of their children.

Women media worker Muslim Jahan Setu said, “There are reports of various kinds of violence everywhere. I am always terrified about my own children and the children of my relatives. I worry about what harm may come from any direction. I cannot trust anyone. Everyone seems suspicious. That is why I work while keeping my four-year-old daughter near my workplace or my husband’s workplace. My daughter travels by metro rail four times a day. Even there, bombs have been recovered. When I open Facebook, I see only reports of brutality. Mothers are under so much mental pressure that living a normal life is becoming difficult.”

A person named Parvez Khan wrote, “It is unbearable. Can we not make this country livable for children?”

Another media worker named Tajul Islam wrote, “How can this state sleep while holding the body of an innocent child?”

A person named Nahid Salma wrote, “You will raise your child with great hardship. You will raise the child and keep them with love. One day someone will come and kill your beloved child. Life does not seem this cheap anywhere else. I have been seeing the news of Apratim’s disappearance since yesterday. I did not share it on my own wall. Because whenever I have shared such news before, none of them returned alive. Finally, I shared it this morning thinking that perhaps someone could help. I prayed so hard that he would be found alive. He was not. What kind of country is this? What kind of cruelty is this?”

Little Abdullah went missing from Jhauchar in the capital’s Hazaribagh on Thursday afternoon. Informing people about the incident, a person named Khan Aparna wrote on social media, “It was time for Asr prayer yesterday. He performed ablution and said with a smile, ‘Mom/Dad, I am going to pray.’ We could never have imagined that the last words of this innocent child would bring the greatest darkness into our lives! Our child left home but never returned... There is no place around Jhauchar, relatives’ homes or hospitals where we have not searched for him. But our beloved little boy has disappeared and left our hearts empty! The entire family is almost going crazy without the child whom we could not bear to be away from even for a moment. Every moment is passing with tears in our eyes and a heart full of anguish.”

Professor Dr. Sazzad Siddiqui, chairman of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Dhaka, believes that special importance should be given to the safety of women and children because they are physically more vulnerable.

He told Agamir Somoy, “Recent incidents of children going missing and being murdered have created a new kind of concern. At least 10 to 15 such crimes must be analyzed thoroughly to identify the nature and trends of these crimes. Based on that trend analysis, it is necessary to determine the strategies of law enforcement agencies and establish specialized skilled units for child protection. Criminals must be brought to swift and exemplary justice so that there is no opportunity to repeat the same crime. However, while ensuring justice, it must also be ensured that no innocent person is harassed or punished.”

“Children’s safety needs to be given the highest priority by the state. This is also linked to the issue of public trust in the state and the government,” Professor Siddiqui added.

A technology based alert system called Moon Alert, or Missing Urgent Notification Alert, was launched in the country to quickly bring information about missing and abducted children to the public.

It officially began operating this year through the Ministry of Home Affairs in coordination with the police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID). However, Moon Alert has alleged that the CID is currently not coordinating the initiative due to bureaucratic complications. This has once again highlighted the need for an integrated national system to recover missing children.

Sadat Rahman, chief executive officer of Zero Missing Children Platform, an organization working on missing children, told Agamir Somoy, “We started working on missing children from police stations. Later, with the support of Meta, we launched Moon Alert on social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. Although we started working in partnership with the CID, we are currently not receiving their cooperation. We can deliver information to people but we cannot recover the children. Recovery and investigation are the responsibility of law enforcement agencies. For this reason, a specialized police unit is needed for missing children. There is no separate national database, special budget or specialized unit in the country for missing and abducted children. As a result, many families have been waiting for years with the pain of losing their children.”

According to the Police Headquarters, small children usually go missing after getting lost while visiting unfamiliar places with their families, being unable to provide their address or going elsewhere while returning home alone.

The reasons are somewhat different for adolescents. Hurt feelings, academic pressure, family disputes, a desire for an independent life, influence from friends or classmates and attempts to obtain money or other benefits from their families are among the main reasons they leave home.

Relatives of missing children said that regardless of whether a child is missing or abducted, police stations take a general diary only after 24 hours. They also alleged that in many cases investigations begin two or three days after the general diary is filed.

The number of children who are found dead after going missing is also not small.

Two year old Abdullah went missing from Tarakanda in Mymensingh on July 9. After searching for the child in various places without finding him, his family filed a general diary at the police station. Two days later, the child’s body was recovered.

Most concerningly, many children fall into the hands of trafficking rings and are taken abroad or become involved in criminal activities.