Dhaka, Sep 25 (IANS): Bangladesh’s Awami League has accused the BNP-led administration of failing to protect children, alleging that a relentless stream of missing-child cases across the country has ended in rape, torture and murder since the government assumed power.
The party said the figures are not mere statistics, but represent children who have been killed, families left shattered and growing concerns over the state’s failure to protect its youngest citizens.
“The BNP administration came to power promising order and security after years of turmoil. Instead, Bangladesh under its rule has produced a documented surge in violence against the most vulnerable. When children are killed after leaving school, after attending madrasa classes, while playing in village yards, or inside the houses of people they trust, the claim of effective governance collapses,” the Awami League stated.
“What exactly is the government doing? Special tribunals exist on paper. Laws against child repression are on the statute books. Yet conviction rates remain low, investigations drag, and the daily average of missing-child reports stays alarmingly high. Public anger occasionally boils over into attacks on accused homes, a symptom of lost faith in official justice,” it added.
The party stressed that political claims about an “active police force” and high recovery rates do not bring back those who have died, nor do they provide answers to parents still waiting for children who will never return home.
“This is not merely a crime wave. It is a governance failure with generational consequences. A state that cannot keep its children alive in schools, homes, and playgrounds has forfeited the most basic claim to legitimacy. International media and human-rights bodies should treat these figures as a red flag. The numbers are public. The bodies are real. The pattern is established,” the Awami League stated
“Bangladesh’s children are dying under the BNP’s watch. The question is no longer whether the crisis exists. The question is how long the government will be allowed to fail them,” it noted.
Asserting that this crisis is not merely about a rise in crime but about a lack of accountability, the party cited international organisations, including UNICEF, which have warned about Bangladesh’s failing child protection systems and called for an end to the culture of impunity.
In its recent findings, Dhaka-based rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) recorded that as many as 155 children were killed between January and August this year in incidents involving murder following disappearance, rape, physical abuse and other forms of violence across Bangladesh.
The killings of children have unfolded alongside a continuing crisis of children going missing nationwide. Various media reported that over 15,000 children disappeared nationwide between January and July this year, highlighting the scale of the problem, Bangladesh’s leading newspaper The Daily Star reported.
Earlier this month, Bangladeshi police headquarters, in a press release, said that 15,717 children had gone missing during the first seven months of the year. Although 13,679 were traced, 2,038 remained missing, accounting for nearly 13 per cent of the total.
